CO 

SiSTiTinucbc 


IV 


/•* 


AMERICA   AND    HER   PROBLEMS 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON  •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &   CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY  •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


PAUL  H.   B.   D'ESTOURNELLES   DE  CONSTANT. 


AMERICA  AND    HER 
PROBLEMS 


BY 


PAUL  H.  B.  D'ESTOURNELLES  DE  CONSTANT 

MEMBER   OF   THE   SENATE   OF   FRANCE  AND   DELEGATE 

TO    THE   PEACE   CONFERENCES    AT   THE 

HAGUE,  1899  AND  1907 


gotfc 
THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1915 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1915, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  May,  1915. 


Nortoooti 

J.  S.  Cushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE   TO   THE   AMERICAN 
EDITION 

To  my  Friends  in  the  United  States 

THIS  book,  the  fruit  of  a  lifetime  of  observation,  study 
and  travel  in  distant  countries,  was  written  during  1911, 
1912  and  1913  ;  that  is  to  say,  almost  on  the  eve  of  the  war 
now  being  waged.  It  is  an  act  of  faith  in  American  and  in 
human  idealism.  My  object  was  to  give  it  living  interest, 
and,  for  this  purpose,  I  have  devoted  the  first  part  of  it 
to  a  faithful  description  of  the  country  as  I  saw  it,  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  from  Mexico  to  Canada,  in  the 
infinite  variety  of  its  magnificent  scenery.  During  the 
last  ten  years  I  have  paid  several  visits  to  the  United 
States,  which  I  have  learned  to  know  very  imperfectly  — 
it  could  not  be  otherwise  with  a  continent  —  but  to  the 
best  of  my  ability.  I  have  tried  to  describe,  for  my  readers' 
benefit,  the  United  States  as  I  saw  them,  with  the  numer 
ous  problems  —  internal,  external,  economic,  political  and 
moral  —  that  confront  them.  I  have  tried  to  make  these 
problems  spring  out  of  the  ground,  so  to  speak ;  to  make 
the  soil  tell  its  own  story  and  explain  its  needs,  its  re 
sources  and  the  future  of  the  inhabitants  who  have  assumed 
the  responsibility  of  developing  it.  I  have  introduced  the 
greatest  possible  number  of  those  who  are  taking  part  in 
this  great  work  in  a  country  where  no  one  is  idle,  where 
every  one  contributes  to  the  accomplishment  of  a  common 


4      *     A     ^ 


VI  PREFACE    TO   THE    AMERICAN   EDITION 

duty,  where  women  and  children  share  in  it,  where  educa 
tion  is  general,  not  only  in  universities  and  churches  but 
in  clubs  and  countless  associations  constituted  by  an  in 
cessant  stream  of  immigration.  I  have  not  endeavored  to 
minimize  the  difficulties  that  confront  the  population  in 
which  so  many  nationalities  and  different  races,  often 
uncongenial,  end  by  becoming  assimilated  or  living  side  by 
side.  I  have  expressed  my  admiration  for  the  manner  in 
which  they  struggle  against  inherited  error,  routine  and 
egoism,  against  drink,  slavery,  injustice  and  violence  in  all 
its  forms. 

My  primary  purpose  is  to  make  this  an  educational 
work,  appealing  to  the  ardent  activity  of  the  young  and 
to  the  enthusiasm  as  well  as  to  the  good  sense  of  public 
opinion.  It  was  written  in  a  spirit  of  confidence,  after  an 
experience  of  forty  years  of  a  laborious  peace,  in  the  strong 
hope  that  the  danger  of  a  great  European  war  might  be 
averted  by  the  combined  effect  of  concerted  efforts  and  the 
cooperation  of  those  disinterested  workers  who,  in  count 
less  numbers,  are  scattered  all  over  the  world  and  who  ask 
for  nothing  better  than  to  unite  and  act  together.  To 
those  skeptics  who  looked  upon  war  as  either  a  solution 
or  a  fatality,  I  have  held  up  the  greatest  republic  in  the 
new  world  as  an  example. 

I  had  two  objects.  One  was  to  do  my  best  not  only  to 
show  the  United  States  how  fully  I  appreciated  their  vast 
resources,  but  to  make  them  realize  the  incalculable  service 
they  could  render  to  civilization,  as  well  as  to  themselves, 
by  remaining  faithful  to  their  peace  policy,  which  is  the 
main  cause  of  their  prodigious  prosperity.  Secondly,  after 
defining  this  peace  policy  and  quoting  facts  to  show  that 
it  was  inspired  neither  by  short-sightedness  nor  by  coward 
ice,  I  have  tried  to  indicate  its  patriotic  grandeur  and  its 
advantages  for  other  nations,  especially  for  those  who 
believed  in  the  superiority  of  militarism.  I  have  given  my 


PREFACE   TO   THE   AMERICAN   EDITION  Vll 

readers  a  choice  between  two  forms  of  actual  experience  — 
two  models,  the  first,  to  be  followed,  a  peace  policy,  and 
the  second,  to  be  avoided,  a  policy  of  adventure  and 
armament. 

Since  the  first  edition  of  this  book  appeared  in  French, 
in  1913,  war  has  broken  out.  Events  have  proved,  better 
than  all  arguments,  that  this  war  will  bring  no  advantage 
to  the  governments  that  premeditated  and  declared  it.  As 
I  have  always  foreseen,  it  stands  out  in  its  true  light  as  a 
bad  action  and  a  piece  of  bad  business,  as  an  indescribable 
crime  and  a  monstrous  absurdity,  perhaps  even  a  form  of 
suicide.  All  the  hatred,  sorrow,  mourning  and  irreparable 
ruin  it  will  leave  as  a  heritage  to  our  children  will  only  too 
thoroughly  justify  the  efforts  of  those  .disinterested  men  who 
have  tried  their  utmost  to  avert  it.  Had  they  had  but 
one  chance  in  a  thousand  to  succeed,  it  was  their  duty  to 
take  that  chance. 

The  publication  of  an  English  edition  of  this  book  in  the 
United  States  will  be  timely,  for  it  is  becoming  more  and 
more  necessary  that  the  young  states  of  the  new  world 
should  avoid  imitating  old  Europe's  mistakes.  The  spirit  of 
domination  will  lose  more  and  more  of  its  prestige,  while  a 
policy  of  justice  and  conciliation  will  impose  itself  as  being 
the  only  one  corresponding  to  the  aspirations  and  progress 
of  humanity.  We  now  have  to  decide  the  question  that 
might  serve  as  a  conclusion  to  this  work :  the  armed  peace 
policy  being  condemned  by  facts,  with  what  are  we  to  re 
place  it  ?  How  are  we  to  organize  a  peace  that  is  not  fore 
doomed  to  end  in  universal  war? 

The  present  war  will  teach  neutrals  a  terrible  lesson. 
Whether  they  like  it  or  not,  their  interests  are  bound  up 
with  those  of  the  belligerents  who  are  fighting  for  peace 
and  justice.  Fortunately  for  themselves  and  for  civiliza 
tion,  they  can  no  more  free  themselves  from  this  bond  than 
they  can  escape  from  the  more  and  more  complex  obliga- 


Vlll  PREFACE    TO   THE    AMERICAN   EDITION 

tions  of  international  intercourse.  On  the  other  hand,  they 
do  not  want  to  compromise  themselves.  Their  position  is 
extremely  difficult.  What  is  their  duty?  Nothing  could 
be  a  more  delicate  matter,  for  instance,  than  for  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  to  avoid  becoming  involved  in 
this  world  conflagration  and,  in  a  word,  to  remain  neutral. 
But  how  are  we  to  understand  neutrality  itself?  No  one 
suggests  that  the  United  States  should  take  up  arms,  as  a 
nation,  on  behalf  of  any  of  the  belligerents,  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  no  one  can  conceive  the  neutrality  of  the  land 
of  American  independence  as  amounting  to  indifference. 
In  showing  that  the  duty  of  the  American  government  is 
to  deliver  the  world  from  the  scourge  of  war,  I  do  not  draw 
the  conclusion  that  it  can  insure  the  organization  of  peace 
by  holding  aloof.  On  the  contrary,  my  belief  is  that  such 
abstention,  so  far  from  keeping  American  influence  intact, 
would  amount  to  an  abdication  and  would  disqualify 
America.  My  view,  at  the  very  outset  of  the  war,  was 
that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  United  States  government  to 
make  an  indignant  protest  against  the  violation  of  Belgian 
neutrality  and  of  the  Hague  conventions,  signed  by  its 
representatives.  Its  duty  and  interest  were  to  make  this 
protest  all  the  more  vigorously  in  view  of  the  fact  that  it 
remained  neutral.  Its  persistent  silence  has  been  an  im 
mense  disappointment  for  its  friends,  and,  I  believe,  a 
great  mistake ;  if  it  will  not  play  its  part  as  a  defender  of 
treaty  obligations  during  the  war,  what  authority  will  it 
have  to  advise  the  negotiation  of  other  treaties  after  the 
war?  It  will  not  be  listened  to.  So  far  from  making 
peace  easier,  the  United  States  government  will  have  con 
tributed  to  discrediting  it  and  making  it  impossible. 

Let  us,  however,  put  this  burning  question  aside.  The 
present  war  raises  plenty  of  others  for  the  consideration  of 
neutrals.  The  first  is  whether  national  defenses  should  be 
in  a  state  of  preparation  or  non-preparation.  This  is  an- 


PREFACE   TO   THE    AMERICAN    EDITION  IX 

other  difficult  case  to  elucidate.  How  are  we  to  escape 
both  dangers :  preparing  too  much  or  not  enough  ?  I  have 
felt  bound  to  express  myself  unmistakably  on  this  point, 
as  well  as  on  others,  such  as  the  abuse  of  governmental 
and  parliamentary  powers  and  of  those  in  the  hands  of 
politicians,  business  men  and  their  newspapers;  as,  for 
instance,  excessive  protection,  the  yellow  peril,  the  Indian 
and  negro  questions  and  those  raised  by  Mexico,  the 
Panama  canal,  the  Philippines,  etc. 

The  problems  I  mentioned  in  1913  as  containing  serious 
ground  for  consideration  have  become  questions  of  life  or 
death  for  the  United  States  since  the  war.  It  is  not  with 
out  interest  that  a  foreigner  should  have  studied  them 
beforehand  in  a  spirit  of  profound  sympathy  for  the  new 
worlds  and  with  the  conviction  that  it  is  their  destiny  to 
regenerate  civilization. 

Long  before  I  visited  the  United  States  I  had  looked  at 
them  with  a  friendly  eye.  I  began  to  know  America,  with 
out  having  crossed  the  ocean,  first  by  my  own  marriage, 
thirty  years  ago,  and  afterwards  through  the  gentleness, 
courage  and  spirit  of  justice  shown  by  several  American 
men  and  women  living  or  traveling  in  France,  where  they 
represented  their  country  better  than  legions  of  newspapers 
could  have  done.  Some  of  the  friends  who  guided  me  have 
left  this  world.  Among  them  I  must  name  the  refined  and 
cultivated  Edmond  Kelly.  Among  others,  nearly  all  of 
whom,  I  am  glad  to  say,  are  still  with  us,  are  Edward 
Tuck,  Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  Du  Puy,  Cyrus  McCormick, 
Edwin  Ginn,  General  Porter,  Henry  White,  Robert  Bacon. 
After  my  first  journey  I  made  other  visits  to  America, 
four  times  in  all,  and  stayed  longer  and  longer.  Many 
Americans  received  me  in  their  homes,  from  the  White 
House  down  to  the  humblest.  I  have  met  most  of  their 
statesmen,  their  savants,  their  artists  and  their  leading 
diplomatists  and  philanthropists,  especially  at  the  two 


X  PREFACE   TO   THE    AMERICAN    EDITION 

Hague  conferences.  It  was  even  arranged  that,  this  year, 
I  should  at  last  accept  long-postponed  hospitality  from  my 
many  friends  in  South  America.  I  was  to  have  gone  to 
Brazil,  the  Argentine  Republic,  Chili  and  Peru,  returning 
by  way  of  Panama,  San  Francisco  (during  the  exposition) , 
the  United  States  and  perhaps  Japan.  Like  many  other 
plans,  this  was  upset  by  the  war. 

I  am  very  far  from  having  seen  everything  that  attracted 
me  to  the  United  States.  The  problems  that  arose  during 
my  journey  absorbed  my  attention  more  than  the  journey 
itself.  I  even  had  to  give  up  the  idea  of  seeing  such  marvels 
as  the  Grand  Canon  and  Yellowstone  Park,  not  to  men 
tion  many  others. 

My  first  visit  to  the  United  States  dates  back  thirteen 
years.  I  went  there  for  the  Washington  anniversary  at 
Chicago  on  Feb.  22,  1902.  On  this  occasion  I  delivered 
my  first  speech  in  English.  It  was  the  starting  point  of  a 
new  phase  of  my  existence.  Formerly  I  had  talked  about 
the  American  peril.  Since  then  I  have  believed  in  the 
American  remedy.  I  returned  in  1907,  having  been  invited 
by  the  Andrew  Carnegie  Institute  at  Pittsburgh  to  attend 
the  foundation  of  the  powerful  American  International 
Conciliation  Association  in  New  York.  This  association 
made  the  arrangements  for  my  third  journey  in  1911.  Up 
to  this  time  I  had  traveled  very  little  outside  the  Eastern 
states.  My  friends  advised  me  to  go  farther  afield  and  to 
see  the  advance  guard  of  Americans.  Long  in  advance 
they  planned  out  receptions  for  me,  both  public  and  pri 
vate,  in  the  largest  possible  number  of  important  centers. 
I  owe  them  much  gratitude.  But  for  their  minute  care  I 
should  have  been  unable  to  make  so  complete  a  tour  and  to 
understand  what  might  otherwise  have  escaped  a  foreigner. 
Every  city,  every  chamber  of  commerce,  university,  club 


PREFACE    TO    THE    AMERICAN    EDITION  XI 

and  corporation  undertook  to  put  me  in  touch,  as  soon  as 
I  arrived,  with  those  who  could  give  me  the  information 
I  required,  and  also  to  make  all  the  arrangements  for  my 
lectures.  The  number  of  people  whose  movements  were 
affected  by  my  visit  made  it  all  the  easier  for  me  to  put 
questions,  to  listen  to  what  others  had  to  say,  and  to  see 
what  there  was  to  be  seen ;  and  I  had  no  difficulty  in  speak 
ing  several  times  a  day  to  all  kinds  of  audiences,  the  smallest 
of  which  numbered  a  few  hundreds,  though  the  usual  size 
was  several  thousands.  It  would  be  very  ungrateful  on 
my  part  if  I  omitted  to  say  that,  to  my  great  surprise,  this 
long  journey  fortified  me  instead  of  tiring  me  out;  and 
when,  the  year  after,  Gabriel  Hanotaux  asked  me  to  join 
the  deputation  from  the  Comite  France-Amerique  and 
pay  a  visit  to  the  United  States  for  the  Champlain  com 
memoration,  I  had  no  hesitation  in  accepting  his  invita 
tion  and  doing  my  best  to  help  him  in  his  public-spirited 
enterprise. 

From  this  visit  I  returned  with  the  conviction  that  if, 
through  a  combination  of  exceptional  circumstances,  my 
testimony  could  add  another  link  and  contribute  to  an 
exchange  of  instruction  between  Europe  and  the  United 
States,  I  had  no  right  to  hold  aloof.  It  seemed  to  me  that 
my  book  would  at  least  be  useful  as  a  record,  like  many 
other  books  that  have  preceded  it,  of  the  contemporary 
position  of  the  United  States,  their  strong  and  weak  points, 
their  resources  and  their  defects,  and  the  degree  of  pros 
perity  to  which  they  have  attained.  It  was  Albert  Kahn's 
very  human  idea  to  photograph  the  world  at  once,  before 
it  is  reduced  to  a  uniform  level  or  transformed  by  progress. 
His  operators  are  bringing  back  cinema  films  to  Paris  from 
Morocco,  the  Far  East,  Albania,  Belgium,  etc.,  which  will 
be  of  great  interest  fifty  years  hence  as  showing  what  the 
world  was  like  in  1911,  1913  or  1915.  This  book  is  an 


Xll  PREFACE    TO    THE    AMERICAN    EDITION 

attempt  of  the  same  kind  —  a  faithful  presentment  of  the 
present  and  my  personal  vision  of  the  future  of  the  United 
States. 

The  translation  of  this  book  into  English  has  been  most 
carefully  made  in  Paris,  in  consultation  with  me,  by  Mr. 
George  A.  Raper,  whose  scrupulous  exactness  and  most 
faithful  interpretation  of  my  meaning  I  cannot  praise  too 
highly.  The  proofs  of  this  translation  have  been  revised, 
in  New  York,  by  a  staff  of  most  devoted  voluntary  helpers, 
in  spite  of  the  complications,  which  can  be  only  too  readily 
imagined,  resulting  from  the  war.  I  owe  my  personal 
thanks  to  my  friend,  President  Nicholas  Murray  Butler, 
whose  energy,  as  usual,  triumphed  over  all  obstacles ;  to 
my  compatriot  Mr.  A.  R.  Ledoux,  in  whose  veins  runs  the 
rich  blood  of  French  ancestors  and  who  is  an  embodiment 
of  the  Franco- American  entente  cordiale;  and  to  the  Sec 
retary  of  the  International  Conciliation  Association  in  New 
York,  Mr.  F.  P.  Keppel,  an  old  and  tried  friend  and  fellow- 
worker. 

The  delay  in  publishing  the  American  edition  has  en 
abled  me,  not  to  modify  my  book  —  for  that  would  have 
changed  its  character  —  but  to  make,  in  the  form  of  notes 
or  amplifications  of  the  text,  such  additions  as  were  neces 
sary  to  bring  it  up  to  date,  and  also  to  bring  forward  fresh 
arguments  in  support  of  the  confidence  which  I  shall  pre 
serve,  in  spite  of  everything,  to  my  dying  day,  in  the  future 
of  humanity. 

I  bequeath  to  my  American  readers  and  to  my  friends, 
known  and  unknown,  in  the  new  world,  the  inheritance  of 
the  beliefs  which,  to  my  sorrow,  I  have  been  unable  to  make 
prevalent  in  the  governing  circles  of  the  old  world,  though 
these  beliefs  are  those  of  all  nations.  They  will  eventually 
outweigh  the  preconceived  opinions  of  statesmen.  After 
this  horrible  war  we  shall  have  more  reason  than  ever  to 
believe  in  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  in  the  benefits  of  pain- 


PREFACE   TO   THE   AMERICAN   EDITION  Xlll 

ful  creative  effort,  in  the  sanctified  nature  of  the  resistance 
that  springs  from  both  heart  and  head,  and  in  the  triumph 
of  Reason,  Good  Will  and  Justice  over  the  sterile  forces  of 
ignorance,  pride  and  violence. 

P.   D'ESTOURNELLES  DE  CONSTANT. 

CREANS, 

April  2,  1915. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

PART   I 
THE   COUNTRY 

CHAPTER   I 

FROM  WASHINGTON   TO   TEXAS    AND   THE 
MEXICAN    FRONTIER 

1.  On  the  way  to  Washington.     Crossing  the  ocean.     The  lesson  of 

the  Titanic.  The  port.  The  progress  and  mistakes  of  New 
York.  The  demoralizing  skyscraper 3 

2.  Philadelphia.     American  independence.     Franco- American  work. 

Newspapers,  photographers  and  phonographs         ...         8 

3.  The  Mexican  revolution.     American  Machiavellis.     A  collective 

intervention? 11 

4.  Washington.     The  bureau  of  the  American  republics.  An  inter 

national  center.  Pan-American  conciliation.  Baltimore. 
Exchanges  of  teachers  and  students.  Johns  Hopkins  Uni 
versity.  The  French  diplomacy.  Good  men  and  bad  organ 
ization.  No  information  from  France,  but  a  daily  hint  from 
Paris.  French  taste 14 

5.  New  Orleans.     French  names  ;  French  initiative  ;  French  souve 

nirs  ;  French  ingratitude.     Tulane  University         ...       21 

6.  Texas.     New  Orleans  and  Texas  remind  me  of  North  Africa. 

The  Texan  desert  and  the  miracles  of  American  energy. 
The  resurrection  of  Galveston.  Austin  University.  San 
Antonio  and  the  American  army.  El  Paso  reminds  me  of 
a  Turkish  garrison.  The  end  of  the  Mexican  administration  23 

CHAPTER   II 

THE    UNITED    STATES    AND    MEXICO.     NEITHER 
CONQUEST   NOR   ABSENTION 

General  Porfirio  Diaz's  dictatorship.  The  danger  of  the  situation. 
Conquest  ?  Mr.  Hearst's  publications.  President  Taft's 
firmness.  An  American  party  in  Mexico.  The  cogwheel. 


XVI  TABLE    OF   CONTENTS 

PAGB 

President  Wilson.  Madero.  Huerta.  A  case  of  conscience. 
The  dilemma.  A  moral  intervention.  The  Hague  institution  27 

CHAPTER   III 
CALIFORNIA 

1.  The  long  distances.     The  state  of  Arizona.     Los  Angeles.     San 

Francisco 42 

2.  Labor  and  agriculture 44 

3.  Yellow  immigration 47 

4.  An  Eldorado.     Touring.     The   American  "  cote  d'azur."     From 

Los  Angeles  to  Del  Monte.     Pasadena 50 

CHAPTER   IV 
WOMAN    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES 

1.  At   the   universities.     Berkeley.     The   girls'   dinner.     Voluntary 

servants.     Young  Americans  traveling  in  France    ...       55 

2.  An  election  campaign.     For  or  against  women.     The  boulevards 

of  Paris.     Miserable  young  girls.     The  three  husbands  .         .       59 

3.  The  French  woman.     A  French  wife 63 

4.  Votes  for  women.    The  suffragettes  in  England.    The  woman  and 

the  war.  The  necessary  struggle.  The  rights  of  the  man. 
The  woman  and  the  child  forgotten.  The  good  man  is  shy. 
Triumph  of  the  women.  The  seaports  and  pleasure  cities  .  66 

CHAPTER   V 
FROM    SEATTLE   TO    SALT    LAKE    CITY 

1.  A  new  city.     Seattle.     The  moving  houses.     The  Seattle  spirit. 

The  "single  tax."     Henry  George.     The  churches         .         .       75 

2.  The  Seattle  exhibition.     Past  and  future.     Far  West  to  Far  East. 

From  the  Arctic  circles  to  the  Tropics    .....       82 

3.  Seattle's  ambition.    The  railways.    New  ideals  ;  the  French  Revo 

lution.  The  products  follow  the  ideas.  Bad  management ; 
deforestation ;  American  waste.  American  organization. 
The  states  of  Washington  and  Oregon.  Culture  and  gather 
ing  of  the  apples.  If  only  France  knew !  .  .  .85 

4.  Portland.     The  Sacramento.     The  gold  seekers.     The  rose  city. 

The  automatic  telephone.  The  Columbia  River.  The  gold. 
The  progress  of  agriculture 93 

5.  Dry  farming.     The  Mormons.     Illegal  but  existing  polygamy       .       98 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS  XV11 

CHAPTER   VI 
COLORADO 

PAGE 

1.  The  Rocky  Mountains.     Colorado    Springs.     The   canon.     The 

cathedral  spires.     The  prairie.     The  Indians          .         .         .     103 

2.  Boulder  University.     The  Easter  Sunday.     Presided  over  by  the 

Rocky  Mountains 108 

3.  Denver.     My  lecturing  in  English.     Sons  and  Daughters  of  the 

Revolution.  Follow  the  flag !  But  have  it  in  good  hands. 
The  lesson  of  the  Spanish  War.  A  cornet  solo  .  .  .  110 

4.  The  Chamber  of  Commerce,  the  Press,  the  legislature  of  Colo 

rado.  The  governor  of  the  state.  His  Honor  the  Mayor  of 
Denver.  The  Press  of  Denver.  The  legislature.  Lady 
members.  The  chief  justice 115 

CHAPTER   VII 

THE    "INEVITABLE?   WAR"    BETWEEN  THE 
UNITED    STATES    AND   JAPAN 

1.  Japan  premeditating  war  ?    Let  us  study  the  danger.    Soap  bubble     125 

2.  The  worst  hypotheses  :    A.   The  United   States  attacks  Japan. 

B,  Japan  attacks  the  United  States 128 

3.  The  empire  of  the  ocean  ;  an  anachronic  dream    ....     133 

CHAPTER   VIII 
LINCOLN— KANSAS    CITY 

1.  The  capital  of  Nebraska.     Life  on  board  of  the  American  rail 

ways  ;  cabins,  cooking.  Lincoln  or  Omaha  ?  The  work 
of  militia.  Voluntary  discipline.  The  pacific  and  patriotic 
doctrine.  William  Jennings  Bryan.  The  Hague  capital  of 
new  ideals.  American  disinterestedness.  France  sower  of 
seed.  Alcoholism.  Paris  and  pornography.  Too  many 
dogs  and  cats.  Temperance 134 

2.  Another  new  city.     Kansas  City.     Agriculture  center.     Scarcity 

of  labor.  The  938  school  teachers.  The  Press.  French 
horses.  The  automobiles  and  the  plucky  girls.  The  park. 
The  boulevards.  The  Missouri's  failure.  The  floods.  The 
lady  who  wants  to  know.  The  Knife  and  Fork  Club  .  .  144 


XVU1  TABLE    OF   CONTENTS 

CHAPTER    IX 
ST.    LOUIS  — LOUISIANA 

PAGB 

1.  New  France.     The  Mississippi.     I  see  Cavalier  de  la  Salle  pass 

ing.  The  martyrdom  of  our  pioneers.  The  foundation  of 
St.  Louis.  The  treaties  of  Utrecht  and  of  Paris.  The  selling 
of  Louisiana.  The  funeral  of  the  flag 155 

2.  The  population.     The  climate  of  the  United  States.     All  kinds  of 

climate.  Floods  and  earthquakes.  Peace  necessary.  Sou 
venirs  of  France.  St.  Louis  exhibition.  French  and  Ameri 
can  idealism  relatives  but  strangers 164 

3.  The  French  spirit.     The  French  language.     The  country  as  it  is. 

Mr.  Robert  Brookings.  They  do  not  dare  speak  foreign 
languages.  Happy  change.  A  French  lesson.  The  lesson 
of  The  Hague 171 

4.  The  American  devotedness.     The  paradise  of  American  hospi 

tality.  Human  good  will.  Against  skepticism.  St.  Louis 
expansion 180 

CHAPTER   X 
TWIN   CITIES  — MADISON— BASEBALL 

1.  St.    Paul    and    Minneapolis.     The    Seine    and    the    Mississippi. 

American  jokes 184 

2.  The  railroad  crisis.     Mr.  James  J.  Hill.     Outburst  of  prosperity. 

No  terminal  facilities.  The  panic.  The  water  traffic.  The 
ladies  of  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis.  French  influence  .  .  188 

3.  Madison.     The  lakes.     The  legislature  and  the  university  of  the 

state  of  Wisconsin.  "  Our  future  is  on  the  water."  The 
constitution  of  the  state  of  Wisconsin.  Political  economy. 
Social  science  and  peace  organization.  Again  the  militia  .  196 

4.  Baseball.     The  umpire.      Early  risers.     The  international  clubs. 

The  "  Marseillaise."     Seeds  of  liberty 204 

CHAPTER  XI 

MILWAUKEE— THE   GROWTH    AND    DECLINE   OF 
GERMAN   INFLUENCE 

1.  The  city  and  the  surroundings.  The  well-deserved  success  of  the 
Germans.  France's  disasters,  but  no  decadence.  The  great 
revenge.  German  militarism  against  German  idealism.  The 
Americans  and  the  Alsace-Lorraine  question.  Tired  of 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS  XIX 

"  Might  makes  Right."     German  imperialism  a  threat  and  a 

disappointment 209 

2.    The  catastrophe.     The    balance-sheet  of   war.     What   German 

militarism  has  brought    .         .  • 223 

CHAPTER  XII 
THE    STATES    OF   ILLINOIS    AND    OHIO 

1.  Chicago.     Latest  developments.     The  lake  traffic.     The  drainage 

canal.  The  town.  The  American  luncheon.  The  Panama 
Canal.  American  Sunday.  The  orchestra  hall  .  .  .  233 

2.  Art,  music,  literature,  science,  philosophy 244 

3.  The  American  barber 250 

4.  The  universities   of   Chicago   and    Illinois.     Chicago.     Urbana. 

The  religion  of  the  future.  The  Chinese  revolution  boy 
cotted  by  European  diplomacy 252 

5.  Women  and  the  drink  question 262 

6.  Cincinnati.     The  wealthy  man  who  does  good.     The  fine  river. 

Toledo,  Indiana,  Columbus,  Cleveland,  Dayton.  Organiza 
tion  of  peace  and  aviation.  The  need  of  this  organization  is 
shown  by  the  present  war  . 264 

7.  End  of  the  first  part  of  my  campaign 275 

PART   II 
THE   PROBLEMS 

CHAPTER  XIII 
THE   SPRINGTIME   OF   A   NATION 

1.  Back  to  Washington.     A  non-central  Federal  center.     Fate  of  a 

world  decided  by  one  city  and  one  man.  Awakening.  Out 
burst  of  spring.  Residential  quarter.  Children.  Society 
women.  Springtime  of  a  nation 279 

2.  Plan  of  the  Federal  city ;  how  it  was  carried  out.    Major  L'Enfant. 

The  Capitol  taking  the  place  of  the  Pantheon.  The  spirit  of 
Franklin.  Public  spirit 285 

3.  City  planning.    Blessings  of  air  and  sunshine.     Religion  of  beauty. 

Walks.     Children's  crusades  against  dirt.     Women  again      .     291 

4.  Washington's  park.     Trees,  birds  ;  the  eagle  and  the  bluebird      .     296 

5.  The  art  of  gardening.     Gardening  is  internationalized  and  democ 

ratized.     Cheap  horticulture.     More  pleasure  for  less  trouble 


XX  TABLE    OF   CONTENTS 

PAGE 

and  less  cost.     Bouquets  of  leaves.    Turfed  walks.    Creation 

of  natural  taste 300 

6.  Mount  Vernon  and  the  White  House.  The  American  middle 
class  and  the  traditions  of  the  simple  life.  Pilgrimage  to 
Mount  Vernon.  A  city  of  gratitude.  Visits  to  the  White 
House  in  1902,  1907,  1911,  and  1912.  Mr.  Roosevelt  and 
Mr.  Taft.  My  appeal  to  President  Roosevelt  in  1902.  The 
Hague  tribunal  saved  by  the  United  States.  Consequences 
of  this  action.  Mr.  Taft  and  arbitration  treaties.  Is  their 
failure  to  be  deplored?  The  White  House  as  battle  field. 
Capital  or  court  of  a  democracy  ?  The  eagle  or  the  star  ?  .  304 

CHAPTER  XIV 
THE   IDEALISTIC    MOVEMENT 

Everything  for  the  future  :  Education.     Nation  building     .         .         .     315 

1.  Freedom  of  instruction  :  Generalization^  impossible.     Educational 

establishments.  Margaret  Morrison  School.  Domestic  econ 
omy.  The  dietitian.  German  teachers  of  French.  One  of 
the  results  of  our  wars.  "  E  pluribus  unum."  The  leaders 
of  public  spirit.  Trustees.  Lafayette  College.  Colum 
bia  University.  Harvard.  Yale.  Princeton.  Coeducation. 
Vassar  College.  Girls'  Normal  College  in  New  York.  Meet 
ing  of  school  children.  The  protection  of  youth.  The  Sor- 
bonne  and  the  Boulevard  St.  Michel.  The  church  as  a  school. 
Toleration  at  the  universities.  Freedom  for  educators  .  .  318 

2.  Lake  Mohonk.     The  Brothers  Smiley.     The  lake  cure.     Debat 

ing  great  ideas.     Supporting  great  causes       ....     338 

3.  The  education  of  political  parties.     Political  classifications.     Mis 

leading  names.  The  dissatisfied.  The  center  between  the 
two  wings.  Progressives  and  Socialists.  Comparative  weak 
ness  of  Socialism 343 

4.  The   Indians.     American   impatience.     History  of   colonization. 

French  and  English.  Spaniards  and  Puritans.  Prairie 
Caesars 351 

5.  The  Negroes  :  the  inevitable  day  of  reckoning.     The  slave  trade. 

The  war  of  secession.     Negroes  liberated  but  not  made  citi 
zens.     Mingling  of  races.     Unassimilated  population.     The 
negro  in  a  white  democracy.     Injustice  to  be  confirmed  or 
-    atoned  for.     Americans  have  faith 359 

6.  Religion  :  is  it  dying  out  or  becoming  modernized  ?     Competition 

in    well-doing.      Religion    of    good.      Christian    Scientists. 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS  XXI 

PAGB 

Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Eddy.  People  who  imagine  themselves 
sick.  Mind  cures.  The  Scientists'  newspaper.  Their 
Mother  Church  in  Boston.  Union  of  religions.  The  spirit  of 
the  French  Revolution.  The  Pioneer  of  pioneers.  Sentiment 
and  reason.  Indifference  to  dogma.  The  Unitarians.  Man's 
duties.  Rival  gods.  Morality  common  to  all.  Back  to  the 
real  Christian  spirit.  Phillips  Brooks.  The  religion  of  the 
future.  American  women  and  secularization  in  France  .  370 

7.  Civic  and  philanthropic  works :  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Se 

attle.  Pastor  Matthews.  Andrew  Carnegie.  Edwin  Ginn. 
Scientific  management.  American  museums.  A  model 
farm 397 

8.  Children.     Teaching  them  how  to   play.     Their  need  for  life, 

space,  cheerfulness,  light,  Nature  and  especially  quiet.  Play 
ground  associations.  Tadpoles.  Imitation  war.  Bonfires. 
Excursions.  John  Brashear.  Doing  the  honors  of  the  sky. 
Libraries.  John  Bigelow.  The  pageant.  The  light  of  truth. 
The  Christian  command  .  .  407 


CHAPTER  XV 
COMPETITION 

1.  Pittsburgh.     Production.     The   circulation   of   things,   men   and 

ideas.  Fort  Duquesne.  .  Fort  Pitt.  Pittsburgh.  Gas,  coal  and 
wheat  one  above  the  other.  Blast  furnaces.  The  apotheosis 
of  initiative.  Conveyance  by  land  and  water  .  .  .  418 

2.  Americans  versus  Americans.    Pittsburgh's  competitors.    Chicago. 

Railroads  and  canals.  The  Erie  Canal.  Duluth.  Roads. 
La  Salle  Creek.  Disciplining  Niagara.  Education  by  gentle 
ness.  Collective  labor.  Another  moving  house.  Unloading 
ore  automatically  at  Buffalo 426 

3.  Competition  from  Canada.     The  two  banks  of  the  Niagara.     Re 

venge  after  prolonged  disdain.  A  clear  field.  Four  months 
of  hot  weather.  The  population  of  Canada.  Agriculture. 
Motoculture.  Pere  Monnier.  Three  transcontinental  rail 
roads.  Navigation  on  rivers,  canals  and  lakes.  Hudson 
Bay.  Our  slowness.  The  port  of  Brest.  The  armed  peace 
system.  A  century  of  peace  between  England  and  America. 
Contagious  dreadnought  fever  .  ....  444 

4.  Universal  competition.    The  West  Indies.     South  America.    The 

African  continent.     From  the  Nile  to  the  Zambesi.     From 


XX11  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Morocco  to  the  Cape.  Asia.  Turkey.  American  ignorance 
of  Russia.  A  Canada  in  Europe  and  Asia.  Competition 
from  old  countries.  Great  and  small  powers.  Scandinavia. 
Americans  between  two  fires 467 

CHAPTER  XVI 
AMERICA'S  DUTY 

1.  Pensions.     The  army  and  navy:    440   million   dollars   spent  in 

pensions.  The  professional  army.  The  militia.  The  navy. 
The  United  States  protected  by  two  oceans.  A  race  to  ruin. 
"  Ships  that  are  too  big."  Progress  in  submarines,  mines  and 
torpedoes.  Expenditure.  Dissatisfaction.  Ports  for  all. 
The  true  American  navy.  The  Naval  School  at  Annapo 
lis.  The  danger  of  an  American  navy  and  the  policy  of 
intervention.  The  lessons  of  the  great  war  of  1914-1915  .  479 

2.  The  colonies.     Imperialism  and  its  vicious  circle.     The  Pacific 

Ocean  an  American  lake  or  the  Pacific  islands  neutralized? 
The  Philippines.  Machinery  wanted 497 

3.  Panama.     The  Panama  Canal  repudiated  by  the  French  republic. 

Charles  de  Lesseps  in  prison.  Resurrection.  The  forth 
coming  opening.  A  tribute  to  President  Roosevelt  and 
American  energy.  Fortifications.  Enfeeblement  through 
militarism.  Possession  or  destruction  of  the  canal.  Prefer 
ential  tolls.  Treaty  violation.  Arbitration  suggested  and 
rejected.  The  actual  war :  neutrality  not  indifference  .  .  501 

4.  Customs  tariffs.     Pessimism  :  Putting  tariffs  into  operation  worse 

than  tariffs  themselves.  Inadequate  justice.  Administrative 
habits  contrary  to  national  idealism.  Parliamentary  control 
a  farce.  Elected  representatives  as  slaves.  Pork-barrel  leg 
islation.  Organization  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic. 
"  Patriotic "  military  and  naval  leagues.  Electoral  reform. 
Newspapers.  Customs  of  legislation.  Public  spirit  will  reform 
the  administration.  Reply  to  pessimists.  New  currents  of 
foreign  immigration  in  the  United  States  .  .  .  .513 

5.  Conclusion :  Distance  between  the  United  States  and  their  gov 

ernment.  Americans  faithful  to  the  Mount  Vernon  traditions, 
but  the  government  has  moved  away  from  them.  Birth  of 
imperialism.  The  1912  election.  The  rights  of  man  and  the 
right  of  peoples.  The  renovation  of  Europe.  Interest  and 
duty  of  the  United  States 518 

Appendix  :  My  New  Year's  letter 525 


PART   I 
THE   COUNTRY 


AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 


CHAPTER  I 

FROM  WASHINGTON  TO  TEXAS  AND  THE  MEXICAN  FRONTIER 

i.  ON  THE  WAY  TO  WASHINGTON:  CROSSING  THE  OCEAN.  The 
lesson  of  the  Titanic.  The  port,  progress  and  mistakes  of  New 
York.  The  demoralizing  skyscraper.  —  2.  PHILADELPHIA.  Amer 
ican  independence.  Franco- American  work.  Newspapers,  photog 
raphers  and  phonographs.  —  3.  THE  MEXICAN  REVOLUTION. 
American  Macchiavellis.  A  collective  intervention?  —  4.  WASH 
INGTON.  The  Bureau  of  the  American  Republics.  An  international 
center.  Pan-American  conciliation.  Baltimore.  Exchanges  of 
teachers  and  students.  Johns  Hopkins  University.  The  French 
Diplomacy.  Good  men  and  bad  organization.  No  information 
from  France,  but  a  daily  hint  from  Paris.  French  taste.  —  5.  NEW 
ORLEANS.  French  names;  French  initiative,  French  souvenirs; 
French  ingratitude.  Tulane  University.  —  6.  TEXAS.  New  Or 
leans  and  Texas  remind  me  of  North  Africa.  The  Texan  desert 
and  the  miracles  of  American  energy.  The  resurrection  of  Galves- 
ton.  Austin  University.  San  Antonio  and  the  American  army. 
El  Paso  reminds  me  of  a  Turkish  garrison.  The  end  of  the  Mexican 
administration. 

i.  Policing  the  Ocean 

I  HAVE  nearly  always  made  the  crossing  from  France  to 
New  York  at  the  worst  time  of  the  year,  either  in  February 
or  in  the  spring,  but  this  has  in  no  way  prevented  me  from 
looking  back  on  the  journey  with  pleasure  as  an  air-cure  and 
a  period  of  perfect  rest.  It  has  been  borne  in  upon  me,  how 
ever,  that  the  faster  our  modern  liners  steam,  the  less  safe  is 
the  route  on  which  they  travel,  especially  for  the  unfortu- 

3 


4  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

nate  vessels  they  sink,  sometimes  without  even  knowing  it. 
The  route  ought  to  be  watched  and,  in  any  case,  made 
more  southerly  eight  months  out  of  the  twelve.  There  are 
several  international  organizations  that  are  needed  in  these 
days  of  enormously  increased  means  of  communication ;  and 
among  them  is  the  policing  of  the  ocean.  The  Titanic  dis 
aster  ought  never  to  have  taken  place,  and  the  same  may 
be  said  of  a  great  many  others,  some  less  sensational  and 
some  of  which  we  know  nothing  at  all.  In  the  matter  of  reg 
ulating  ocean  traffic,  everything  still  remains  to  be  done,  or 
to  be  done  over  again.  Let  us  hope  that  the  recent  interna 
tional  agreement  of  London  will  have  good,  practical  results.1 

New  York  Harbor  too  Narrow 

Practically  all  harbors  are  proving  inadequate.  This 
applies  to  Havre,  in  spite  of  all  that  has  been  done  to  im 
prove  it.  Brest  does  not  count  except  as  a  naval  port. 
Magnificent  and  impressive  as  it  is,  the  entrance  to  New 
York  harbor  has  nevertheless  proved  too  narrow  for  the 
enormous  vessels  now  in  use,  which  the  slightest  mistake 
transforms  into  catapults  that  carry  destruction  to  them 
selves  and  everything  within  reach. 

*As  a  result  of  the  Titanic  disaster,  an  international  conference  was 
held  in  London  during  the  month  of  November,  1913.  This  conference 
elaborated  and  adopted  on  January  20,  1914,  a  convention  duly  signed  by 
the  representatives  of  Germany,  Austria-Hungary,  Belgium,  Denmark, 
Spain,  the  United  States  of  America,  France,  Great  Britain,  Italy,  Norway, 
The  Netherlands,  Russia  and  Sweden,  "to  safeguard  human  life  at  sea." 

The  convention  sought  especially  to  minimize  the  danger  from  wrecks 
and  derelicts  by  their  destruction,  to  promote  researches  concerning  floating 
ice,  improvement  in  design  and  arrangement  of  water-tight  bulkheads, 
radio-telegraphy,  life-saving  apparatus  and  its  operation,  measures  against 
fire,  etc.,  etc.  Unfortunately,  this  convention  was  not  ratified,  the  war 
having  intervened  to  arrest  all  progress  and  to  turn  civilization  backward. 

The  disaster  to  the  Titanic  was  only  an  accident  of  small  importance 
compared  to  the  catastrophes  deliberately  planned  through  mines,  artillery, 
torpedoes  and  submarines.  (March,  1915.) 


WASHINGTON   TO   TEXAS    AND   THE    MEXICAN   FRONTIER         5 

Progress  has  become  so  daring  and  so  upsetting  to  pre 
conceived  ideas  that,  to  keep  pace  with  it,  the  world  has 
to  be  continually  changing  its  methods  and  machinery. 
There  is  ruinous  and  exhausting  competition  on  all  sides. 
The  necessity  of  making  these  incessant  changes  ages  even 
young  countries  in  a  few  years.  The  ports,  and  also  the 
factories,  that  are  in  the  best  position  nowadays  are  those 
in  which  everything  has  still  to  be  done.  Having  no  past, 
they  can  begin  with  the  latest  improvements,  to  which  the 
others  are  just  coming  or  for  which  they  are  planning. 

Old  Cities  in  America 

It  is  the  same  with  cities,  and  especially  American  cities. 
The  oldest,  dating  back  a  century  or  two  —  three  at  the 
outside  —  are  badly  off  nowadays  in  comparison  with  the 
new  cities  springing  up  on  all  sides.  The  former  lack  the 
charm  and  the  prestige  that  history  has  bestowed  on  an 
cient  towns,  whose  ruins  are  worth  more  than  modern 
dwellings,  and  they  are  hampered  by  roughly  built  struc 
tures  that  make  all  beautifying  and  progress  difficult. 
Half  their  time  and  resources  are  taken  up  in  more  or  less 
makeshift  attempts  to  correct  the  mistakes  of  a  by  no 
means  distant  past.  The  life  of  New  York  is  a  constant 
succession  of  great  achievements.  A  fine  sight,  and  one 
that  well  befits  our  times,  is  this  effort  on  the  part  of  a 
city,  which  began  badly,  and  may  be  said  to  have  been 
badly  brought  up,  having  reached  maturity  and  become 
conscious  of  its  position  strives  to  fill  it  worthily. 

Badly  Planned  New  York 

The  plan  of  New  York  was  conceived,  or  improvised,  in 
opposition  to  modern  ideas.  These  in  reality  are  a  rever 
sion  to  true  architectural  traditions,  in  which  a  garden  or 


O  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

landscape  served  as  an  harmonious  and  health-giving  sur 
rounding  for  the  habitation.  New  York  can  boast  neither 
a  tree  nor  a  single  charm  of  Nature.  It  consists  of  cement 
cubes  and  caissons  built  as  high  as  possible,  placed  side  by 
side  and  separated  only  by  long  nameless  streets  crossing 
one  another  at  right  angles.  What  chance  does  such  a  plan 
leave  to  the  imagination  ?  It  is  something  to  see  the  Amer 
icans  in  this  their  darling  city,  proud  of  the  difficulties  it 
has  overcome,  plethoric  with  wealth,  more  thickly  peopled 
than  some  European  kingdoms  (it  has  just  twice  as  many 
inhabitants  as  Norway)  and  already  compelled  by  its  own 
success  to  begin  all  over  again ! 

Every  one  is  trying  to  contribute  to  the  beautifying  of 
New  York,  but  it  is  nothing  less  than  a  labor  of  Hercules. 
By  going  a  long  way  off,  it  will  be  easy  enough  to  provide 
New  York  with  parks  (we  must  admire  the  city  for  having 
preserved  Central  Park),  open  spaces,  promenades  and 
playgrounds;  but  what  can  be  done  for  the  vast  extent 
of  old  New  York?  Merely  modernizing  a  single  railroad 
depot,  not  even  in  a  central  district,  means  compulsory 
purchases  of  property,  expedients,  temporary  works  that 
threaten  to  last  forever,  combinations  of  interests,  and 
graft  —  the  usual  experience,  in  fact,  of  all  large  capitals. 
What  would  it  be  if  an  attempt  were  made  to  change  the 
whole  plan  ?  It  would  be  an  impossibility ;  and  yet  every 
thing  possible  is  being  done  —  immense  achievements, 
doomed  to  be  inadequate  !  All  this  is  well  known.  Plenty 
of  foreign  travelers  have  given  us  excellent  descriptions  of 
New  York.  Only  a  few  of  them  have  made  the  mistake 
of  taking  New  York  for  the  whole  of  America.  I  will 
therefore  refrain  from  remarking  upon  its  magnificent  new 
docks,  its  colossal  Pennsylvania  and  Grand  Central  stations, 
its  depressing  but  speedy  subway,  and  its  gigantic  tube 
under  the  Hudson,  which  used  to  be  so  pleasant  to  cross 
by  ferryboat. 


WASHINGTON   TO   TEXAS   AND    THE    MEXICAN   FRONTIER         7 

I  will  abstain  from  deploring  the  continued  and  excessive 
increase  in  the  height  of  its  skyscrapers,  and  yet  I  must 
say  something  on  this  subject,  if  only  to  satisfy  my  con 
science  by  expressing  a  hope  that  the  skyscraper  fashion 
will  not  spread  to  the  old  world  just  as  the  new  seems  to 
be  beginning  to  tire  of  it. 

Demoralizing  Effect  of  the  Skyscraper 

Now  that  it  has  forty  or  forty-five  stories,  the  skyscraper 
is  becoming  aggressive  and  demoralizing.  I  admit  that, 
both  for  those  who  build  it  and  those  who  live  in  it,  it  pos 
sesses  all  kinds  of  very  practical  advantages,  owing  to  the 
way  in  which  everything  is  centralized,  simplified  and  per 
fected  to  the  highest  possible  point,  but  the  cost  of  these 
individual  advantages  to  the  community  is  too  great.  The 
day  will  come  when  extremes  will  meet  and  the  skyscraper 
will  be  banned  like  the  hovel.  Perhaps  nothing  better  will 
be  invented,  for  those  who  like  to  live  well  above  the  crowd 
and  its  noise  and  dust,  but  it  is  a  form  of  oppression  directed 
against  the  population  of  the  entire  city.  At  the  base  of  a 
skyscraper,  a  wide  street  becomes  a  mere  alley,  a  ditch,  or 
a  well.  Man  counts  for  less ;  the  poor  are  still  poorer,  and 
drop  out  of  sight.  On  the  ground,  which  has  become  a 
great  luxury,  the  skyscraper  monopolizes  the  only  benefits 
that  belonged  to  all  —  light,  air  and  the  blue  sky.  It 
lengthens  night  and  throws  its  icy  shadow  in  daytime  over 
whole  districts,  thousands  of  human  beings  eager  to  live, 
and  children.  It  will  not  even  let  trees  live !  Hitherto 
the  size  of  houses  and  public  monuments  has  been  more  or 
less  regulated  by  trees.  These  are  now  dwarfed  into  mere 
mushrooms  by  the  skyscraper.  It  is  a  monument  of  ego 
tism,  ostentation  and  self-advertisement.  It  is  enormous 
and  inhuman.  Apart  from  trees,  how  can  we  imagine,  near 
this  dominating  mass,  any  one  of  those  works  of  art  that 


8  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

are  more  numerous  than  one  would  suppose  in  the  United 
States  and  are  being  built  even  in  New  York,  in  the  wealth 
iest  districts  ?  How  are  we  to  conceive  the  existence  of  any 
monument  of  piety,  love  or  taste;  any  library,  museum, 
temple,  church,  club  or  theater,  under  such  conditions? 
And  still  less  can  we  imagine  a  mere  garden. 

The  Americans  realize  their  youthful  errors  as  well  as 
ourselves,  and  perhaps  better,  but  it  does  not  always  rest 
with  them  to  make  up  for  these  errors.  Megalomania 
carries  its  own  chastisement  with  it,  and  leaves  traces  that 
serve  for  the  instruction  of  posterity.  For  these  reasons 
and  many  others  the  great  and  magnificent  modern  city  of 
New  York  is  viewed  by  many  of  the  young  communities 
in  the  United  States,  as  we  shall  see,  in  the  light  of  an 
out-of-date  creation.  It  is  the  same  with  Philadelphia. 

2.   Philadelphia 

I  duly  made  the  pilgrimage  to  Philadelphia,  the  birth 
place  of  American  independence.  I  found  that  the  city 
council  and  the  business  men  who  received  me  at  the  city 
club  were  more  than  ever  busied  in  preparing  for  the  future 
requirements  of  their  city.  A  great  amount  of  attention  is 
devoted  to  education  and  the  care  of  the  rising  generation. 
Even  young  trees  are  included,  and  people  are  sorry  that 
the  ax  was  used  so  freely  in  former  years.  A  census  of  such 
trees  as  are  left  has  been  ordered.  Others  are  being  planted, 
and  a  " shade  committee"  has  been  formed.  This  is  going 
back  to  the  mistakes  as  well  as  to  the  pleasant  remembrances 
of  the  past.  Americans  are  constantly  on  the  lookout 
for  facts  and  examples  that  will  help  them,  and  are  finding 
them  afar  off  or  close  at  hand  or  away  back  in  history. 

In  a  pious  and  patriotic  spirit  they  are  keeping  the 
memory  of  our  French  forefathers,  alive.  France  would 
be  guilty  of  criminal  folly  if,  through  ignorance,  she  allowed 


WASHINGTON    TO    TEXAS    AND    THE    MEXICAN   FRONTIER         9 

such  bonds  between  the  two  sister  republics  to  snap  or  even 
to  slacken.  I  have  been  shown  the  statue  of  a  French 
benefactor  to  Philadelphia,  Etienne  Girard,  a  precursor  of 
France's  free  and  generous  ideas.  Statues  of  Lafayette 
are  to  be  found  all  over  the  country.  His  biography  has 
been  written  by  a  former  American  ambassador  in  Berlin, 
Mr.  Charlemagne  Tower,  who  is  now  living  in  active  re 
tirement  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  book  has  become  a  classic. 

Franco- American  Work 

Americans  are  grateful,  and  they  are  proving  it.  They 
love  France,  simply  and  disinterestedly,  for  the  part  she 
took  in  creating  and  liberating  the  United  States,  and  for 
her  attachment  to  the  principles  of  justice  which  are  the 
raison  d'etre  of  a  free  people.  They  are  disturbed  in  mind 
by  all  the  ill  we  speak  about  ourselves,  by  the  continual 
attacks  of  our  newspapers  on  responsible  authority,  and  by 
our  national  mania  for  making  things  out  worse  than  they 
are ;  and  they  are  glad  to  be  reassured  and  have  it  demon 
strated  to  them  that,  after  all,  the  French  Revolution 
brought  forth  some  fruit  that  was  not  entirely  bad  and  that 
France  is  still  the  same  France  as  of  yore.  They  realize 
that,  in  reality,  France's  enemies  are  theirs  also,  that  the 
attacks  on  her  are  directed  against  her  form  of  government 
and,  consequently,  against  theirs,  more  than  against  herself. 
They  ask  for  nothing  better  than  to  see  that  she  is  pro 
gressing  in  the  world's  confidence  and  in  peaceful  prosperity. 
That  prosperity  and  wealth  are  not  the  result  of  mere 
chance.  The  climate  and  soil  have  much  to  do  with  it, 
but  what  they  admire  and  want  to  hear  about  is  her  love 
for  labor,  her  obstinate  devotion  to  great  ideals  and  her 
belief  in  better  things,  for,  like  ourselves  and  in  a  still 
greater  degree,  they  need  labor,  progress  and  continuity 
to  carry  on  their  national  organization. 


10  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

This,  and  nothing  more,  is  the  theme  I  have  come  to 
uphold.  I  rejoice  with  them  over  all  the  good  accomplished 
by  their  ancestors  and  ours,  but  I  add:  "Noblesse  oblige! 
They  created  your  country  and  won  your  freedom.  It  is 
now  our  duty  to  turn  our  inheritance  to  good  account  and 
hand  it  down  to  those  who  come  after  us.  Governments, 
even  with  the  best  intentions,  are  at  the  mercy  of  mistaken 
public  opinion.  Let  us  therefore  instruct  that  opinion, 
and  begin  by  instructing  ourselves.  Let  us  draw  closer  to 
gether  and  know  one  another.  This  is  a  Franco-American 
movement  which  will  be  not  merely  idealistic  but  positive, 
practical  and  urgent,  and  it  will  complete  what  was  done  by 
our  predecessors." 

All  this  is  perfectly  well  understood ;  and  when  I  have 
"covered,"  as  they  say  here,  the  territory  of  the  United 
States  I  shall  not  have  wasted  my  time.  I  have  been  both 
helped  and  hampered  by  the  press :  by  which  I  mean  that 
I  had  to  lecture  several  times  a  day  to  journalists  who,  as 
a  rule,  summarized  my  remarks  correctly.  Some  people 
complain  of  newspaper  men,  instead  of  blaming  themselves 
for  giving  poor  expression  to  what  they  expect  others  to 
reproduce  well.  There  are  also  the  reporters,  who  are  not 
always  journalists :  the  kind  who  board  your  steamer  at 
New  York  in  a  hurry,  with  a  notebook  in  one  hand  and  a 
kodak  in  the  other.  The  photographer  is  also  an  excellent 
auxiliary  (not  to  mention  the  phonograph  man,  who  wants 
you  to  deliver  your  speech  to  him).  The  photographer 
attacks  you  at  your  hotel,  invades  your  room  at  the  head  of 
his  squad  of  operators,  and  does  not  let  you  go  until  he 
has  taken  innumerable  pictures  with  extraordinary  speed. 
Next  morning,  or  the  same  evening,  you  see  yourself  in  the 
paper  at  the  top  of  a  report  of  your  speech.  It  is  a  very  con 
venient  and  up-to-date  way  of  letting  your  family  know 
what  you  are  doing. 


WASHINGTON    TO   TEXAS    AND   THE    MEXICAN   FRONTIER       II 

3.  The  Mexican  Revolution 

At  the  beginning  of  my  last  journey  but  one,  the  pessi 
mists  (in  March,  1911)  were  much  exercised  by  the  revolu 
tion  in  Mexico.  They  assured  me  that  war  would  follow 
at  once  and  that  the  best  thing  I  could  do  was  to  return 
home.  I  declined  to  listen  to  these  exaggerations  and  I 
went  on  my  way.  The  situation  must  be  regarded  in  its 
true  light.  We  have  to  consider  not  only  a  revolution, 
carried  even  to  devastation  and  anarchy,  in  Mexico,  but 
also  the  real  interest  of  the  United  States  and  their  means 
of  action. 

The  situation  was  very  complicated  in  1911 ;  I  found  it 
the  same  in  1912  and  it  is  much  more  so  at  present.  The 
United  States  government  cannot  deal  with  it  as  it  would 
like  to  do ;  and,  what  is  more  serious,  it  cannot  act  abso 
lutely  as  it  pleases  in  all  the  states,  and  especially  in  Texas, 
which  is  much  larger  than  France  (688,340  square  kilo 
meters),  not  to  mention  the  five  other  states  taken  away, 
like  Texas,  from  Mexico  —  an  invariably  dangerous  prece 
dent.  The  United  States  government  has  to  guard  an 
enormously  long  frontier  (about  2000  kilometers),  bristling 
with  wild,  inaccessible  mountain  peaks ;  and  it  will  have 
some  difficulty  in  reconciling  its  police  duties,  and  that  of 
temporary  intervention,  in  case  of  serious  trouble  across  the 
border,  without  coming  into  conflict  with  its  duties  and  in 
terests  as  a  neutral.  It  will  have  to  be  especially  careful 
to  hold  out  against  the  usual  demands  of  its  citizens,  es 
tablished  or  not  in  Mexico,  who  claim  its  protection  and 
then  proceed  to  clamor  blindly  for  a  protectorate  and  finally 
annexation.  In  addition  to  all  these  difficulties,  there  will 
be  claims  for  damages,  not  to  mention  the  danger  of  de 
stroying  the  equilibrium  of  the  United  States  by  extending 
them  too  far  southward  and  Spanifying  them  as  far  as 
Panama.  But  this  is  only  one  side  of  the  question. 


12  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

What  can  the  United  States  do  and  what  do  they  want 
to  do  ?  That  is  the  point.  They  have  assembled  an  army, 
the  papers  say,  but  what  sort  of  an  army?  An  immense 
country,  in  process  of  formation,  cannot  muster  an  army  so 
quickly.  It  has  neither  the  time  nor  the  money,  and  it  can 
hardly  supply  the  men,  even  by  paying  them  heavily  and 
sacrificing  crops  which  already  have  to  suffer  considerably 
through  the  scarcity  of  labor.  One  can  travel  from  Chicago 
to  New  Orleans  without  seeing  a  single  soldier. 

American  Macchiavellis 

It  has  been  suggested  by  some  American  Macchiavellis 
that  bodies  of  irregulars  —  Mexicans,  half  breeds,  Indians, 
etc.  —  should  be  raised  and  paid  to  fight  Mexico.  This 
would  be  a  deplorable  old-time  expedient.  It  would  de 
moralize  all  concerned  and  end  by  making  Mexico  resist 
still  more  desperately,  and  by  exciting  mistrust,  not  to  say 
hostility,  throughout  South  America  and  in  Canada.  A 
few  American  regiments,  dispatched  to  or  raised  in  Texas, 
and  acting  in  cooperation  with  some  cruisers  protecting 
the  ports,  should  therefore  be  sufficient  to  enable  the  gov 
ernment  to  carry  out  indispensable  police  operations,  but, 
except  through  some  attack  of  madness  which  nothing 
entitles  us  to  anticipate,  it  will  go  no  further.1  It  will  not  go 
beyond  intervention  in  the  most  restricted  and  temporary 
form  possible,  well  knowing,  as  it  does,  that  it  would  be 
powerless  to  stop,  and  more  especially  that  not  one  of  the 
forty-nine  states  in  the  Union,  including  the  former  Span- 

1The  result  has  proved  this  to  be  correct.  The  Government  of  the 
United  States  has  not  even  attempted  to  intervene  —  or  at  least  only  tem 
porarily  and  with  the  desire  to  terminate  the  intervention  without  delay. 
It  has  given  proof,  in  accord  with  almost  universal  American  opinion,  of  a 
generous  spirit  of  conciliation;  it  appealed  to  the  mediation  of  the  three 
principal  South  American  republics  —  the  "A.  B.  C.'s."  All  these  facts 
are  not  as  generally  known  as  they  would  be  had  not  the  European  war 
imposed  such  great  responsibilities  upon  the  United  States.  (March,  1915.) 


WASHINGTON   TO   TEXAS   AND   THE    MEXICAN   FRONTIER      13 

ish  provinces  and  the  state  of  Texas  itself,  wants  either 
war  or  adventurous  policies  that  lead  to  it. 

A  Collective  Intervention 

It  may  be,  I  repeat,  that  the  United  States  will  be  obliged 
to  decide  on  a  minimum  of  intervention,  but  even  that 
minimum  should  not  and  cannot  last.  It  is  quite  the  reverse 
of  being  to  the  interest  of  the  United  States.  I  regret  that 
it  has  not  been  thought  possible  to  prepare  for  a  collective 
cooperation  of  all  the  great  Powers,  American  as  well  as 
European  and  Asiatic,1  in  order  to  secure  neutral  and  clearly 
disinterested  intervention,  in  case  of  urgent  need.  This 
intervention  would  not  be  in  contradiction  to  the  Monroe 
Doctrine ;  far  from  it.  It  would  not  constitute  intrusion  on 
the  part  of  one  or  of  several  foreign  Powers.  It  would  be 
joint  action  by  all  civilized  nations  for  the  sake  of  civiliza 
tion,  in  answer  to  an  invitation  from  the  United  States. 
This  collective  intervention  would  be  the  safest  and  most 
honorable  way  of  putting  an  end  to  anarchy  or  at  least  of 
diminishing  it.  It  would  localize  the  outbreak  and  encour 
age  the  good  elements  in  the  Mexican  population  to  main 
tain  order  and  attend  to  business.  They  would  not  regard 
it  as  a  danger  or  an  offense,  but  as  a  mark  of  friendliness.  It 
would  arouse  no  suspicion  and  not  even  offend  any  suscep 
tibility.  It  would  be  acceptable  both  morally  and  politi 
cally.  In  taking  such  an  initiative,  the  United  States 
would  do  honor  to  themselves,  because  it  would  show  them 
to  be  faithful  to  their  principles  and  opposed  to  new  con 
quests  and  adventures,  and  would  give  a  great  and  striking 
example  of  uprightness  when  the  world  most  needs  it. 

1  Let  it  be  remembered  once  for  all  what  has  been  said  in  the  introduction 
to  this  volume.  It  was  completed  and  published  in  French  long  before  the 
present  European  war.  The  reader  will  quite  understand  that  the  writer 
was  not  willing  to  modify  in  1915  his  published  impressions  of  1913.  So 
to  do  would  have  changed  the  very  spirit  of  the  book.  (March,  1915.) 


14  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

A  Mexican  War  and  Its  Dangers 

The  effect  of  a  Mexican  war  on  the  United  States  would 
be  to  stop  their  growth.  It  would  only  serve  the  interests 
of  the  little  army  of  Imperialists,  Megalomaniacs  and 
speculators,  who  are  much  more  dangerous  to  their  country 
than  is  the  revolution  in  Mexico.  It  should  not  be  for 
gotten  that  conquerors  have  no  luck  with  Mexico.  The 
United  States  had  better  avoid  a  mistake  that  was  fatal 
to  Napoleon  I  himself.  In  his  omnipotence  he  looked 
down  upon  his  weak  neighbor  Spain,  but  this  weakness 
was  too  much  for  his  armies  and  his  generals.  The  Spanish 
guerrillas  had  the  better  of  the  Napoleonic  Grand  Army, 
and  the  Spanish  war  was  the  beginning  of  the  end  for  the 
conqueror  of  conquerors  and  for  his  empire.  Even  Bis 
marck,  soon  after  his  great  triumph,  had  to  give  way  to 
Spain  when  she  rose  in  defense  of  the  Caroline  islands.  He 
yielded  to  a  country  which,  though  weak,  was  strong  in  the 
consciousness  of  its  right.  Beware  of  Mexico;  it  is  four 
times  as  large  as  Spain,  more  deserted,  more  difficult  of 
access,  and  more  deadly !  It  is  emphatically  a  hornets' 
nest.  I  will  revert  to  this  question  because  it  is  more  than 
complex ;  it  is  tragic.  It  is  not  merely  American  or  Pan- 
American,  but  universal  and,  I  fear,  eternal.  It  is  a  severe 
test  for  the  youthful  United  States  of  America. 

4.   At  Washington.     The  Pan-American  Bureau 

Washington  society  and  the  diplomatic  corps  were  in 
vited  by  the  Bureau  of  American  Republics  to  attend  my 
lecture  in  the  fine  building  it  owes  to  the  munificence 
of  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie.  This  Pan-American  Bureau 
works  admirably.  It  has  no  pretension  toward  unifying 
the  twenty-one  republics  of  the  New  World,  which  would 
be  absurd  and  impossible.  It  contents  itself  with  doing 


WASHINGTON   TO   TEXAS   AND   THE    MEXICAN   FRONTIER      15 

its  best  to  unite  them  as  much  as  possible.  It  does  not 
pretend  to  abolish  causes  of  dissension  or  prevent  diffi 
culties,  which  are  the  inevitable  lot  of  every  association, 
but  it  places  at  the  common  disposal  everything  that  can 
bring  them  together  and  serve  their  interests.  In  fact,  it 
is  paving  the  way,  as  a  practical  application  of  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  for  a  positive  and  defensive  alliance  of  all  the 
republics  on  the  American  continent,  —  a  society  for  mu 
tual  assistance  as  well  as  initiative  and  economic  activity, 
an  insurance  against  American  misunderstandings,  quarrels 
and  wars :  in  other  words,  American  peace  and  progress. 
Its  expenses  are  paid  by  contributions  from  all  the  American 
states,  in  proportion  to  their  population.  The  pivot  and 
soul  of  the  organization  is  its  director-general,  Mr.  John 
Barrett.  He  is  elected  by  the  committee  and  officers,  to 
whom  he  is  responsible. 

The  Bureau  itself  is  made  up  of  the  United  States  Secre 
tary  of  State  and  all  the  representatives  of  American  gov 
ernments  at  Washington.  The  organization  also  comprises 
an  international  staff  of  statisticians,  commercial  attaches, 
editors,  librarians,  translators,  clerks  and  stenographers. 
Correspondence  is  actively  carried  on  with  business  men  in 
all  countries  of  the  Union  and  beyond.  A  very  handsome 
illustrated  monthly  review  is  published  in  four  languages  — 
English,  Spanish,  French  and  Portuguese.  Some  day, 
perhaps,  numbers  in  German  and  Russian  will  be  added. 
The  library,  which  consists  of  books  on  special  subjects, 
issues  reports,  tabulated  statements,  illustrative  diagrams 
and  maps.  The  public  is  admitted  to  the  library  as  well 
as  to  the  rest  of  the  building.  The  interior  has  been  so 
designed  —  by  a  French  architect,  Paul  Cr£t,  a  follower 
of  Pascal  —  that  the  lofty  classical  portal  enhances  the 
charm  of  the  patio  inside,  where  Latin-Americans  find  a 
homelike  hothouse  atmosphere,  with  tropical  vegetation 
all  around  them.  In  summer  the  roof,  which  is  movable, 


1 6  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

is  taken  off,  and  the  patio,  like  those  in  the  South,  is  in  the 
open  air.     It  is  symbolical  of  Spanish  America. 

All  the  American  governments  support  the  Bureau, 
which  is  constantly  calling  attention  to  the  resources  of  the 
various  states  in  the  Union.  It  is  a  sort  of  collective 
development  syndicate  —  something  like  a  committee 
formed  to  make  America  known  and  to  bring  its  various 
parts  into  communication. 

An  International  Center 

I  do  not  see  why  we  should  not  have  a  bureau  of  this  kind 
in  Europe.  By  keeping  in  touch  with  the  American  Bureau, 
it  would  render  great  service  to  trade  and  producers  in 
every  country  and,  consequently,  to  all.  This  would  be, 
as  it  is  here,  the  beginning  of  an  organization  indispensable 
as  a  complement  to  the  new  rapprochements  of  our  time. 
Some  influential  body  —  the  Comite  France- Amerique,  for 
instance  —  ought  to  take  the  initiative  in  realizing  this 
idea.  We  would  then  see,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic, 
the  Pan-American  Bureau  at  Washington  and  the  Pan- 
European  Bureau  in  Paris  —  two  twin  bureaus  for  one  and 
the  same  national  and  universal  action.  This  is  not  so  far 
off  as  it  seems.  Some  architects  of  great  merit,  Mr.  Hen- 
drik  C.  Andersen,  an  American,  and  M.  Ernest  M.  Hebrard, 
a  Frenchman,  with  an  elite  of  collaborators,  have  already 
drawn  up  a  very  fine  plan  of  the  new  city,  the  "  international 
artistic,  economic  and  scientific  world-center,"  where  the 
representatives  of  these  two  bureaus  could  meet  the  dele 
gates  of  all  the  foreign  administrations,  who  want,  not 
to  become  one,  of  course,  but,  on  the  contrary,  to  know 
one  another  and  to  affirm  their  national  existence.  The 
most  highly  respected  men,  beginning  with  M.  Emile 
Boutroux  of  the  French  Academy,  M.  Liard,  the  Rector  of 
the  Sorbonne,  and  many  others  have  accorded  their  patron- 


WASHINGTON   TO   TEXAS   AND   THE    MEXICAN   FRONTIER       17 

age  to  this  vast  enterprise,  the  realization  of  which  would 
not  cost  very  much  if  the  expense  were  divided  among  forty- 
seven  Powers  and  spread  over  ten  or  twenty  years.1 

Pan-American  Conciliation 

Another  sign  of  the  times  is  that  the  Washington  Bureau 
has  already  made  its  influence  felt  in  the  United  States  and 
South  America.  Its  aims  are  so  well  understood  that  a 
subsidiary  and  additional  organization  has  just  been  founded 
in  New  York  with  the  powerful  assistance  of  Messrs.  Elihu 
Root,  Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  Robert  Bacon,  James  Brown 
Scott  and  others.  It  is  called  the  Pan-American  Concilia 
tion  Institute  and  is  a  new  offshoot  of  the  already  mentioned 
International  Conciliation  Society.  This  institute's  mission 
is  preeminently  educational.  In  all  the  American  countries 
in  which  it  is  represented,  it  will  arrange  for  exchange  visits 
of  teachers  and  students,  for  publications  and  assistance  in 
various  forms,  in  the  spirit  that  will  most  surely  prepare 
public  opinion  to  aid  the  work  of  the  Pan-American  Bureau. 

Baltimore.  —  Exchanges  of  Teachers  and  Students 

These  exchanges  of  ideas,  knowledge  and  men  are  in  the 
air  and  are  being  discussed  everywhere.  A  question  put 
to  me  at  Baltimore,  where  the  celebrated  Johns  Hopkins 
University  is  situated,  was:  "Why  does  not  the  French 
Government  help  to  send  some  of  its  young  graduate 
teachers  to  our  great  universities?  It  would  be  doubly 
beneficial  both  for  them  and  for  us." 

I  fully  approved  of  this  suggestion,  while  not  forgetting 
that  a  similar  experiment,  which  has  already  proved  very 
interesting,  is  being  carried  on,  thanks  to  some  generous 

1  France-Am&rique  Revue,  December,  1913  ;    a  lecture  delivered  by  Paul 
Adam  in  the  great  hall  of  the  Sorbonne,  Dec.  6,  1913. 
c 


1 8  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

innovators.  There  is,  for  instance,  the  Albert  Kahn  foun 
dation.  When,  however,  the  holders  of  these  traveling 
scholarships  return  to  France,  the  Ministry  of  Public 
Instruction  usually  treats  them  as  if  they  had  been  away 
on  a  vacation  instead  of  at  work.  They  are  sent  off  to 
some  obscure  provincial  college  and  left  to  vegetate  there. 
As  a  rule,  any  one  in  the  employ  of  a  French  government 
department  who  distinguishes  himself  by  a  spirit  of  initiative 
is  more  likely  to  be  punished  than  rewarded.  Any  officer 
or  teacher  who  undertakes  a  mission  outside  the  regular 
routine  sacrifices  his  prospects.  "The  absent  are  always 
to  blame"  is  a  peculiarly  French  proverb.  It  is  particu 
larly  applicable  to  our  representatives  abroad. 

French  Diplomacy 

For  the  past  fifteen  years  —  to  go  no  further  back  —  we 
have  been  lucky  enough  to  be  well  and  very  ably  repre 
sented  at  Washington.  In  this  period  we  have  had  only 
two  ambassadors  —  in  itself  a  good  sign :  two  men  as 
different  from  each  other  as  any  two  Frenchmen  could 
well  be.  One,  M.  Jules  Cambon,  does  not  speak  English, 
while  the  other,  M.  Jusserand,  knows  it  thoroughly. 

When  I  met  M.  Jules  Cambon  here  in  1902,  I  admired 
the  manner  in  which  he  added  to  our  influence  by  his  expe 
rience  and  the  all-pervading  charm  of  his  intelligence  and 
conversation.  I  even  thought  his  ignorance  of  English  was 
a  great  advantage,  as  it  obliged  the  Americans  to  bring 
out  their  French,  about  which  they  were  more  often  shy 
than  ignorant.  M.  Cambon's  personal  efforts  in  the  United 
States  have  done  an  immense  amount  to  awaken,  or  revive, 
pride  in  the  Franco- American  cooperation  of  olden  times. 
The  Lafayette  and  Rochambeau  monuments,  which 
occupy  the  most  prominent  corner  positions  opposite  the 
White  House,  on  the  main  square  of  what  has  become  a 


WASHINGTON   TO   TEXAS   AND   THE    MEXICAN   FRONTIER      19 

magnificent  city,  are  an  impressive  sight.  They  are  pre 
eminently  national  monuments. 

The  fact  remains,  however,  that  in  a  country  with  a 
future,  and  in  a  land  of  education  such  as  this,  people 
are  not  satisfied  with  merely  seeing  things;  they  want 
to  know,  and  so  M.  Jusserand,  when  he  unveils  a  statue, 
tells  his  audience  about  it.  He  explains  what  France 
was  and  what  she  is.  He  is  an  ambassador  who  does 
not  confine  himself  to  negotiating.  He  also  discharges  the 
duties  of  a  public  educator,  and  this  is  what  a  young 
people,  such  as  that  of  the  United  States,  appreciates 
most  of  all. 

In  reckoning  up  the  excellent  work  accomplished  by  these 
two  representatives  of  France,  I  rejoiced  at  their  selection, 
and  I  hoped  such  choices  would  become  the  rule.  There  is 
no  lack  of  the  right  kind  of  men,  but  the  trouble  is  in  the 
way  in  which  selections  are  made  at  the  Quai  d'Orsay. 
Influences  of  all  kinds  are  brought  to  bear,  with  a  complete 
disregard  for  the  intellectual,  social  and  moral  standing  of 
our  representatives,  and,  I  might  say,  their  family  life. 
There  is  certainly  no  need  for  an  ambassador  of  the  Republic 
to  set  an  example  of  display,  but  it  is  essential  that  he  should 
be  a  man  of  personal  worth,  with  a  respectable  and  respected 
home  circle.  If  this  is  true  as  applied  to  our  ambassadors, 
it  is  none  the  less  so  in  regard  to  our  consuls.  After  having 
passed  a  stiff  examination,  these  unlucky  men  are  sent  off, 
anyhow,  to  posts  and  climates  which  are  often  quite  un- 
suited  to  them.  Consuls  who  know  English  are  frequently 
sent  to  Spanish-speaking  countries,  to  Germany  and 
Russia,  and  so  on.  To  my  knowledge  this  has  always 
been  the  practice.  The  permanent  officials  give  way  to  the 
minister,  who  in  turn  gives  way  to  pressure  from  Parlia 
ment  or  elsewhere.  This  state  of  things  will  continue  so 
long  as  public  opinion  remains  ignorant  or  indifferent  and 
declines  to  interfere. 


20  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

If  we  look  back  to  the  way  in  which  France  was  formerly 
represented,  in  the  Chevalier  d'Eon's  day,  for  instance, 
we  shall  find  that  our  diplomatists  have  no  reason  to  com 
plain  of  their  position  as  compared  with  that  of  their  prede 
cessors  under  the  old  regime.  But  it  is  a  great  pity  to  see 
France  take  so  little  interest  in  the  manner  in  which  she  is 
represented  abroad,  especially  as  the  development  of  means 
of  communication  has  enormously  extended  our  relations 
with  other  countries. 

No  Information  from  France.    Paris  Fashions 

The  mistake  is  all  the  greater  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
there  is  no  organized  service  of  telegraphic  news  from 
France.  The  American  papers  publish  news  from  every 
country  in  the  world  except  ours.  France  is  scarcely 
mentioned  except  when  some  scandal  crops  up,  and  even 
then  the  news  is  taken  from  English  or  German  agencies. 

Nevertheless,  truth  will  out,  and  vital  forces  must  assert 
themselves  in  spite  of  all  obstacles.  The  monuments  of 
our  great  men,  the  masterpieces  of  our  artists,  scientists, 
aviators,  professors  and  novelists,  our  new  plays,  our 
actors  and  our  fashions  make  up  for  newspaper  silence. 
To  mention  only  our  fashions,  the  speed  with  which  they 
cross  the  ocean  is  remarkable. 

The  same  newspapers  that  pay  no  attention  to  our 
political  debates  are  full  of  what  is  inspired  by  our  Rue  de  la 
Paix.  Regularly  every  day  they  give  prominence  to  an 
echo  of  our  fashions :  a  Parisian  idea  with  an  elegant  illus 
tration,  a  "  Daily  Hint  from  Paris/'  I  have  been  out  of 
reach  of  our  boulevards  for  only  a  few  weeks,  and  here  I 
find  the  big  hat  conflict  going  on  just  as  it  does  with  us, 
and  I  see  pretty  faces  hidden  under  parasols  of  flowers  and 
feathers  or  crowned  by  a  little  helmet  or  a  flower-pot  about 
the  size  of  one's  fist.  All  these  things  bear  the  stamp  of 


WASHINGTON   TO   TEXAS   AND  THE   MEXICAN   FRONTIER      21 

Paris  and  France.     It  is  a  monopoly.     Good  or  bad,  it  is 
French  taste,  and  this  is  the  only  kind  wanted. 

5.   New  Orleans.    French  Initiative  and  French  Ingratitude 

From  intense  cold  I  have  changed  into  a  tropical  tem 
perature.  It  was  a  great  surprise  to  see  fresh  vegetation 
and  blue  sky  when  I  awoke,  and  another  surprise  was  the 
cordial  greeting  I  received  from  people  of  dear  old  France, 
such  as  MM.  A.  For  tier,  Roaldes  and  Chassaignac,  who 
were  waiting  for  me  at  the  station.  It  was  also  painful 
to  have  to  note,  once  more,  what  a  magnificent  piece 
of  work  was  accomplished  by  French  initiative  and  re 
pudiated  by  France.  Reminders  of  La  Salle,  Champlain, 
Marque tte  and  many  others  meet  one  on  all  sides.  Such 
names  as  Orleans,  Pontchar train,  Chantilly  and  Paul 
Tulane  constantly  catch  the  eye,  like  those  of  Lafayette 
and  Rochambeau  at  Washington. 

French  initiative  came  here  and  put  life  into  this  im 
mense  new  continent,  from  Canada  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
It  took  possession  of  the  magnificent  Mississippi  valley, 
scattered  along  which  are  French  names,  such  as  Saint 
Paul,  Saint  Louis  and  even  the  little  village  of  Chef  Men- 
teur.  Of  course,  such  an  empire  could  not  have  been  re 
tained  in  a  political  sense,  but  how  utterly  it  was  aban 
doned  by  an  indifferent  government  and  misunderstood 
by  public  opinion ! 

Frenchmen  seem  to  be  fated  to  have  no  support  from  their 
own  country  when  they  devote  themselves  to  the  noblest, 
most  thankless  and  most  useful  causes.  This  is  perhaps 
owing  to  the  operation  of  some  law  of  Nature  which  is 
opposed  to  intrusting  too  much  to  a  single  agency  and 
limits  our  share  of  active  participation,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  inventor.  To  some  is  given  the  joy  of  opening  up  the 
path,  and  to  others  the  satisfaction  of  reaching  the  goal. 


22  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

It  is  also  a  question  of  temperament.  True  inventors  are 
like  cooks  who  do  not  eat  the  food  they  have  themselves 
prepared,  and  like  genuine  artists  who  paint  for  the  sake 
of  art  and  not  to  sell  their  pictures. 

Our  old  families  of  French  planters  have  also  suffered 
severely  through  their  abandonment  by  France,  but  they 
show  no  sign  of  it  and  have  remained  true  to  her  in  spite 
of  everything.  It  has  been  a  great  delight  to  me  here  to 
come  across  so  many  of  our  provincial  turns  of  speech  and 
familiar  names.  Paul  Tulane,  the  founder  of  the  great 
university  in  which  I  was  a  guest,  and  of  which  my  friend 
Dr.  Craighead  was  president,  is  a  very  common  name  in 
our  old  Maine. 

Since  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  Southern  states  of  the 
Union  have  suffered  more  than  the  rest  from  the  great 
weakness  of  the  United  States  —  the  scarcity  of  labor. 
In  Georgia  one  travels  through  plantations  of  fruit  trees 
-  peaches,  plums  and  almonds  —  extending  as  far  as  the 
eye  can  see,  and,  farther  south,  are  the  cotton,  rice,  tobacco 
and  sugar  estates,  but  every  year  there  is  the  same  diffi 
culty  about  getting  in  the  crops.  It  becomes  more  than 
ever  a  wonder  to  me  where  the  government,  which  is  look 
ing  all  over  the  world  for  colonists  and  workmen,  can 
find  sailors  and  soldiers. 

Tulane  University 

I  was  greatly  surprised  and  impressed  by  the  great  annual 
festival  at  Tulane  University.  When  I  entered  the  hall  in 
my  new  dignity  as  a  doctor  of  the  university,  the  orchestra 
greeted  me  with  a  series  of  old  French  folk  songs  and 
patriotic  songs,  from  the  "Chant  du  Depart"  to  "J'ai  du 
bon  tabac  dans  ma  tabatiere,"  "C'est  le  Roi  Dagobert" 
and  "J'aime  bien  les  bons  gateaux  et  les  confitures"  and 
ended  with  a  most  spirited  " Marseillaise."  The  students 
emphasized  these  songs  with  Indian  war  whoops.  The 


WASHINGTON   TO   TEXAS   AND    THE   MEXICAN   FRONTIER      23 

girls,  who  looked  charming  in  their  black  or  mauve  gowns, 
with  caps  to  match,  waved  their  banners  gayly  and  ap 
plauded  frantically.  Every  one  wanted  to  do  honor  to 
France,  "la  belle  France,"  as  she  is  called  everywhere, 
except  among  ourselves. 


6.   Texas.    Northern  Africa 

Since  I  arrived  in  Louisiana,  and  more  especially  Texas, 
I  have  been  haunted  by  the  remembrance  of  northern 
Africa.  I  do  not  mean  that  this  country  has  anything 
resembling  the  Mediterranean  coast  landscapes,  which 
in  my  opinion  are  unequaled.  New  Orleans  reminded 
me  very  little  of  what  the  European  part  of  Tunis,  "la 
marine,"  was  in  my  youth,  with  its  level  ground  reclaimed 
from  the  lake,  its  houses  and  even  its  tombs  washed  by 
the  waters,  its  mountains  and  its  flies.  Most  of  these 
things  are  missing  here,  but  we  have  something  that  Tunis 
does  not  possess  —  the  Mississippi,  which  is  quite  capable 
of  bringing  the  whole  country  not  only  wealth  but  floods ; 
the  luxuriant,  chaotic  vegetation  flourishing  wherever 
the  virgin  forest  has  not  made  way  for  immense  rectangular 
plantations ;  the  roads  which  remind  me  of  our  native 
tracks,  dotted  with  light  vehicles  driven  in  Tunis  by  Sici 
lians,  Arabs  and  Maltese,  and  here  by  Spaniards,  Ameri 
cans,  negroes  and  negr esses.  This  is  not  America  as 
Chateaubriand  described  it,  but  colonization,  with  its 
mixture  of  races  and  its  contrasts,  and  also  its  problems. 

A  Miracle 

Texas  is  a  country  of  great  estates  and  ranches  over 
which  scanty  herds  and  a  few  cowboys  are  scattered. 
Throughout  endless  tracts  of  territory  there  is  no  water  to 
be  had.  I  saw  some  tropical  showers,  but  I  was  assured 


24  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

that,  up  to  that  time,  there  had  not  been  a  drop  of  rain 
for  fourteen  months. 

This  is  the  kind  of  desert  that  human  energy  is  begin 
ning  to  fertilize.  From  time  to  time  the  train  stopped  at 
a  station  surrounded,  by  wooden  buildings,  many  of  which 
were  pretty;  and  I  could  see  windmills  at  work  over  re 
cently  bored  wells.  Then  came  the  desert  again,  bounded 
by  the  Apache  mountains. 

Houston  and  San  Antonio  are  feeders  for  the  flourishing 
port  of  Galveston,  founded  by  a  French  Canadian,  Lucien 
Menard,  in  1837.  It  is  not  only  a  prosperous  but  an  ex 
traordinary  port.  It  was  wiped  out  in  1900  by  a  tidal  wave 
which,  in  a  few  hours  of  one  terrible  night,  submerged 
the  whole  city,  drowning  12,000  out  of  50,000  inhabitants. 
Galveston  has  so  profited  by  this  disaster  as  to  become  the 
third  port  in  the  United  States.  The  material  progress 
made  by  Texas  is  shown  by  the  immense  quantities  of  agri 
cultural  produce  exported  from  Galveston.  What  was 
once  a  desert  is  in  a  fair  way  to  take  the  front  rank  among 
the  producing  states  of  the  Union.  In  all  parts  of  the 
country  I  have  been  told  about  the  future  importance  and 
exceptional  wealth  of  Texas. 

The  University 

I  was,  moreover,  able  to  form  some  estimate  of  my  own 
from  what  I  saw  at  the  University  of  Texas,  situated  at 
Austin,  which  extended  to  me  a  hospitality  I  shall  not 
readily  forget.  I  was  greatly  indebted  for  this  reception 
to  the  kindness  lavished  on  me  by  President  Mezes  and 
his  very  distinguished  brother-in-law,  E.  M.  House.  It 
was  after  leaving  New  Orleans  and  Austin  that  I  felt 
myself  really  uplifted  by  the  sympathetic  interest  that 
sustained  me  to  the  end  of  my  long  trip  through  the  United 
States. 


WASHINGTON    TO   TEXAS   AND   THE    MEXICAN   FRONTIER      25 

San  Antonio.    El  Paso.    The  American  Army 

There  is  a  great  contrast  between  the  peaceful,  intellectual 
city  of  Austin  and  the  caravanserai-city  of  San  Antonio. 
The  latter  is  inhabited  by  Mexicans,  Americans  and  Ger 
mans.  It  has  the  odors  and  appearance  characteristic  of 
the  South.  It  is  also  the  point  of  concentration  for  the 
United  States  troops  to  which  I  have  already  referred. 
Slender  and  elegant  young  men  in  khaki  walk  about  the 
town,  which  is  near  their  camp.  This  is  where  Colonel 
Roosevelt  assembled  his  "rough  riders"  at  the  time  of  the 
war  with  Spain.  At  present  the  government  has  no 
difficulty  in  finding  recruits  for  the  cavalry.  It  makes 
strong  appeals  to  the  youth  of  the  country  by  means  of 
attractive  placards,  exhibited  in  every  state,  and  especially 
at  the  universities.  Where  is  the  young  man  who  would 
not  jump  at  such  an  opportunity  for  a  few  weeks'  or  a  few 
months'  campaigning  on  the  frontier?  He  regards  it  as 
sport  combined  with  camping  out,  a  fine  expedition  and 
perhaps  some  fighting,  all  organized  for  his  benefit  by  the 
government :  and  if  he  can  persuade  himself  that  he  is 
serving  his  country  and  some  worthy  cause,  the  temptation 
becomes  very  strong.  It  is  the  same  everywhere.  Does 
not  the  charm  of  novelty  and  danger  attract  swarms  of 
volunteers  in  France  for  the  aviation  service  or  the  colonies  ? 
Here,  however,  the  attraction  is  not  sufficient  for  volunteers 
to  consent  to  serve  in  the  infantry.  Nevertheless,  some 
infantry  have  been  obtained,  where  and  on  what  terms  I 
do  not  know,  or  in  what  absolutely  inadequate  numbers. 
Did  not  the  British  army  itself  have  to  find  448,000  men  to 
overcome  —  temporarily  —  40,000  Transvaal  Boers  ?  There 
were  ten  Englishmen  to  every  Boer !  American  volunteers 
can  and  do  exist  only  as  an  accidental  exception  to  the 
natural  order  of  things.  I  saw  some  of  them,  certainly 
not  more  than  15,000  or  20,000,  at  San  Antonio  and  El 


26  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

Paso,  which  are,  for  the  time  being,    the  two  military 
centers  of  Texas  and  the  United  States. 

The  small  American  town  of  El  Paso,  right  on  the  frontier, 
is  separated  from  the  little  Mexican  town  of  Juarez,  Mexico, 
only  by  the  Rio  Grande,  a  small,  half-dried-up  river.  It 
is  crossed  by  several  old  wooden  bridges,  which  reminded 
me  of  those  in  Turkey.  At  each  end  of  each  bridge  the  two 
armies  and  the  two  Customs  were  face  to  face.  The  young 
American  volunteers  in  their  new  uniforms  looked  manly 
and  determined,  with  nothing  of  the  swashbuckler  about 
them.  The  Mexican  soldiers  were  more  sedate,  and  had 
a  thin  and  resigned  appearance.  Like  the  bridges,  they 
reminded  me  of  Turkey.  It  is  said  that  President  Diaz 
was  for  a  long  time  unaware  that  by  far  the  greater  part  of 
his  army  existed  only  on  paper.  It  was  the  same  with  other 
national  institutions,  and  notably  the  Mexican  Parliament. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE     UNITED     STATES     AND     MEXICO.      NEITHER     CONQUEST 
NOR   ABSTENTION 

General  Porfirio  Diaz's  dictatorship. — The  danger  of  the  situation. 
—  Conquest  ?  —  Mr.  Hearst's  publications.  —  President  Taft's 
firmness.  —  An  American  party  in  Mexico.  —  The  Cogwheel  Presi 
dent  Wilson.  —  Madero.  Huerta.  —  A  case  of  conscience.  —  The 
dilemma. — A  moral  intervention.  —  The  Hague  institution.  .  .  . 

General  Porfirio  Diaz's  Dictatorship 

THOSE  who,  in  view  of  the  outbreak  of  revolutionary 
fury,  now  look  back  with  regret  to  General  Porfirio  Diaz's 
administration,  and  its  undoubted  prosperity,  are  estimat 
ing  it,  as  I  once  estimated  it  myself  from  afar,  on  the 
strength  of  results  which  were  very  brilliant  but  not 
durable.  It  produced  all  that  can  be  expected  from  a 
dictatorship :  industrial  peace  based  on  moral  slavery  and 
all  the  material  benefits  of  this  peace,  then  corruption  and 
finally  anarchy.  A  dictator  has  no  right  to  grow  old. 
After  a  time  his  supporters,  being  rich,  tired  or  dead,  are 
only  the  souvenir  of  his  administration,  whilst  several 
successive  generations  of  active  men  have  been  left  aside, 
doing  nothing,  except  waiting  for  their  chance,  —  that  is 
to  say,  for  revolution. 

But  we  must  go  further  back,  and  it  would  be  altogether 
too  summary  a  proceeding  to  throw  the  whole  responsibility 
of  the  Mexican  revolution  on  the  shoulders  of  a  single  man. 
General  Porfirio  Diaz's  dictatorship  itself  constituted 
progress,  in  comparison  with  what  went  on  under  Spanish 

27 


28  AMERICA   AND    HER   PROBLEMS 

rule.  He  certainly  was  a  despot  but  none  the  less  a  be 
nevolent  despot.  He  began  in  very  much  the  same  way  as 
a  great  many  other  dictators,  and,  during  his  thirty  years  of 
absolute  power,  he  was  accused  of  many  crimes,  beginning 
with  the  slaughter  at  Vera  Cruz.  He  abused  the  unlimited 
power  he  exercised,  but  he  also  made  good  use  of  it.  The 
truth  is  that  his  unfortunate  country  was  not  educated 
up  to  self-government,  and  that  the  only  result  of  its 
insurrection  is  a  relapse  into  anarchy. 

The  Danger  of  the  Situation 

The  situation  is  dangerous  enough  in  itself,  and  is  made 
still  more  serious  by  the  extent  to  which  it  reacts  on  the 
different  countries  having  large  colonies  in  Mexico.  Some 
very  important  French  interests,  as  well  as  English  and 
German,  are  threatened  and  seriously  involved ;  and  what 
is  to  be  said  of  those  of  the  United  States?  Ten  years 
ago,  in  1901,  Mexico's  exports  were  120  million  dollars 
to  the  United  States,  12  to  Great  Britain,  5  to  Germany,  2 
to  France,  i  to  Spain ;  in  all,  150  million  dollars. 

The  United  States,  as  Mexico's  next-door  neighbor, 
are  permanently  confronted  with  problems  with  which 
we  in  Europe  are  familiar  but  which  are  new  to  them,  like 
many  others  —  the  questions  that  have  always  arisen  be 
tween  neighboring  countries  when  one  is  strong  and  well- 
organized  and  the  other  is  weak  and  given  over  to  anarchy. 
Crimes,  followed  by  reprisals,  are  constantly  being  com 
mitted  between  them,  generally  crimes  against  common  law, 
the  work  of  nomads  always  ready  to  escape  across  the 
frontier.  The  repetition  of  these  offenses  against  common 
law  ends  by  constituting  a  state  of  disorder  which  is  un 
endurable  by  the  neighboring  country  and  all  foreign 
residents.  It  is  a  trouble  that  is  as  old  as  the  hills. 

The  situation  was  rendered  additionally  complicated  in 


THE   UNITED   STATES   AND   MEXICO  2  9 

the  United  States  by  the  necessity,  under  which  the  govern 
ment  found  itself,  of  making  a  distinction  between  pro 
fessional  plunderers,  not  to  mention  the  men  sent  to  stir 
up  trouble  for  jingoistic  or  speculative  purposes,  and 
political  insurgents,  who  could  naturally  count  on  warm 
support  from  a  large  proportion  of  the  American  people, 
especially  in  the  Southern  states,  which  are  the  most 
democratic,  and  particularly  in  Texas.  Leaving  all  in 
terested  calculations  out  of  account,  American  national 
sentiment  could  not  possibly  support  Porfirio  Diaz,  the 
usurper,  against  the  Maderists  or  Constitutionalists  who 
opposed  him  in  the  name  of  the  very  principles  obtaining 
in  the  Union.  The  state  of  Texas,  for  instance,  has  never 
been  and  never  will  be  able  to  turn  an  indifferent  eye  on  a 
scene  of  which  it  is  a  highly  interested  spectator.  Its 
inhabitants  are  of  an  ardent  nature,  with  traditions  which, 
in  a  sense,  are  Spanish  but  are  preeminently  revolutionary. 
At  El  Paso  they  attend  cockfights  and  bullfights.  As 
agriculturists  and  business  men  they  are,  no  doubt,  in 
terested  in  the  maintenance  of  order,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  most  of  them,  being  genuinely  republican  and  not 
Catholic,  have  not  forgotten  their  struggles  against  Spanish 
priestly  domination.  They  remember  how  the  American 
defenders  of  independence  were  massacred  in  the  Alamo 
mission  church,  now  kept  up,  not  as  a  church,  but  as  a 
national  monument.  San  Antonio  is  proud  of  having 
been  called,  since  those  days,  "the  cradle  of  liberty  in 
Texas."  When  I  was  there  in  1911,  I  do  not  suppose 
that  any  of  its  inhabitants  contemplated  a  conquest  of 
Mexico,  but  none  of  them  would  have  agreed  to  any  inter 
vention  intended  to  paralyze  a  revolutionary  movement 
such  as  they  are  proud  of  having  carried  to  a  successful 
issue  on  their  own  side  of  the  frontier.  Their  state  of  mind 
was  complicated.  They  were  in  favor  of  order  and  insurrec 
tion  —  especially  insurrection. 


30  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

Taking  the  most  evident  facts  and  interests  into  account, 
and  leaving  out  the  inevitable  maneuvers  of  fishers  in 
troubled  waters,  we  must  see  that  the  present  prosperity 
of  the  former  Mexican  provinces  which  have  become  an 
integral  part  of  the  United  States  cannot  fail  to  react  on 
the  neighboring  provinces  which  have  remained  Mexican 
but  are  penetrated  by  American  influences,  and  to  excite,  as 
can  readily  be  imagined,  all  kinds  of  aspirations,  ranging 
from  single-minded  emulation  to  regret  and  covetousness. 
Thus  it  is  true  that,  with  the  best  of  good  faith,  —  in 
consequence,  in  fact,  of  its  good  faith,  which  is  as  un 
doubted  as  its  interest  in  the  matter,  —  the  Washington 
cabinet  is  at  a  loss  as  to  how  to  settle  the  Mexican  question 
and  thereby  give  satisfaction  to  impatient  public  opinion. 
I  would  like  to  discuss  this  question  impartially,  basing 
my  remarks  on  the  experience  I  may  have  acquired  in 
my  diplomatic  and  political  career,  which  happens  to 
have  brought  me  into  touch  with  other  conflicts  of  the 
same  kind. 

Conquest  ? 

In  these  cases  there  is  always  some  one  to  recommend 
the  use  of  strong  measures,  that  is  to  say,  armed  interven 
tion  and  conquest  in  the  name  of  outraged  national  dignity. 
So  extremely  simple  a  plan  is  inadmissible.  Its  only  ex 
cuse,  to  my  mind,  is  ignorance  and  a  patriotism  which,  I 
know,  is  often  sincere  and  disinterested  but  very  short 
sighted.  It  plays  into  the  hands  of  all  sorts  of  interests, 
personally  ambitious  schemes  and  more  than  suspicious 
speculations  —  interests  that  are  very  active  and  gener 
ally  combined,  while  the  national  interest,  on  the  contrary, 
is  undecided  and  scattered  A  special  Press,  which  pro 
vides  the  partisans  of  this  policy  with  arguments  and 
encouragement,  has  grown  up.  It  appeals  to  fine  senti 
ments  and  the  love  of  great  deeds  and,  at  the  same  time, 


THE   UNITED   STATES  AND  MEXICO  31 

it  favors  immense  operations  calculated  to  bring  in  both 
glory  and  money,  for  which  reason  it  appeals  much  more 
strongly  to  the  reader's  imagination  than  does  the  honest 
newspaper  which  confines  itself  to  advising  him  to  keep 
quiet. 

Mr.  Hearst's  Publications 

In  the  United  States,  where  they  do  nothing  by  halves, 
there  is  a  whole  string  of  newspapers,  magazines  and  re 
views,  well  known  as  the  "  Hearst  Publications,"  that  are 
every  day  at  work  announcing,  preparing  the  next,  the 
inevitable  war  of  which  we  have  heard  and  will  hear  so 
often.1  In  fact  these  publications,  apparently  very  rich, 
have  a  remarkable  organization  which  has  to  be  not  only 
national  but  international.  They  have  their  agencies  of 
information,  "the  International  News  Service,"  in  the  best 
quarters  of  all  the  capitals  in  Europe,  as  well  as  in  America. 
Their  principal  European  offices  are  located  in  London,  in 
the  Haymarket  and,  in  Berlin,  on  Friedrichstrasse.  Speak 
ing  of  Paris  only,  their  French  office  is  2  rue  de  la  Paix,  not 
very  far  from  our  gigantic  association  or  trust  of  the  manu 
facturers  and  constructors  of  material  of  war  (an  association 
whose  part,  clearly  defined  by  its  official  statutes,  art.  8, 
is  to  influence  the  public  powers,  government,  parlia 
ment,  administration  and  so  on).  Each  of  the  European 
branches  of  the  Hearst  publications  recruits  the  ablest 
reporters  from  amongst  the  strongest  newspapers  of  their 
respective  countries,  in  order  to  collect  sensational  in 
formation  from  well-chosen  sources.  They  cable  to  each 
other  and  exchange  this  information,  so  that  they  can 
keep  public  opinion  constantly  in  a  state  of  feverish  alarm 
and  bring,  when  it  is  required,  fresh  arguments  to  the 
international  body  of  the  so-called  "patriotic"  news 
papers,  as  well  as  to  Congress  and  the  legislatures  in  favor 

1  This  was  written  in  1913. 


32  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

of  naval  and  military  expenses.  What  can  a  poor,  in 
dependent  newspaper  do,  what  can  the  most  honest  man 
do,  even  the  most  honest  government,  against  such  a 
powerful  organization?  In  America  every  one  knows 
that  the  war  with  Spain  was  forced  upon  Mr.  McKin- 
ley's  government  by  the  Hearst  publications.  Since 
that  time,  these  publications  have  naturally  developed 
and  enlarged  their  ambition  and  their  organization  in 
proportion  to  the  increase  of  armaments.  They  have 
been,  as  regards  the  Mexican  question,  more  and  more 
engaged  in  representing  armed  American  intervention  as 
inevitable:  "The  determination  of  government,"  they 
say  in  substance,  "and  the  evident  interest  of  the  American 
people  are  of  very  little  account.  The  Mexican  question 
will  not  be  settled  by  reason  but  by  the  force  of  circum 
stances.  Some  day,  a  handful  of  American  business  men 
in  Mexico  will  manage,  if  they  find  out  the  right  way,  to 
overcome  the  ignorance  and  pacific  inertia  of  the  entire 
population  of  the  United  States  and  the  government  as 
well." 

President  Taffs  Firmness 

This  is  what  I  heard  in  1911.  This  did  not  prevent 
President  Taft  (whose  adversaries,  and  especially  his 
friends,  have  so  greatly  deplored  his  kind-heartedness, 
which  they  described  as  carried  to  the  verge  of  weakness) 
from  holding  out,  with  most  exceptional  energy  and  cool 
ness,  against  these  appeals,  made  even  by  some  of  those 
who  approached  him  most  closely.  If  President  Taft 
had  yielded  to  these  influences,  the  question  would  now  be 
settled  in  favor  of  an  irremediable  conquest.  He  did  not 
give  way,  and  this  by  itself,  to  my  mind,  entitles  him  to 
general  gratitude.  Maneuvers  which  have  proved  suc 
cessful  in  all  times  and  in  all  countries  were  checkmated 
by  his  steadfast  opposition.  I  described  these  maneuvers 


THE   UNITED   STATES  AND  MEXICO  33 

years  ago  in  connection  with  the  occupation  of  Tunis - 
an  occupation  which  we  were  far  from  desiring  and  which 
we  postponed  as  long  as  possible.1  They  were  carried  on 
quite  as  actively  in  Egypt,  the  Transvaal,  Morocco  and 
Asia.  They  have  now  found  a  most  favorable  sphere  in 
Mexico.  As  a  natural  outcome  of  the  situation,  an  Ameri 
can  party  has  been  formed  in  the  five  Mexican  provinces 
bordering  on  the  southern  frontier  of  the  United  States. 

An  American  Party  in  Mexico 

This  party  does  not  confine  itself  to  clamoring  for  annexa 
tion,  but  also  does  its  best  to  make  annexation  inevitable. 
All  this  is  a  matter  of  course,  the  first  item  in  its  program 
and  the  ABC  of  the  most  elementary  speculation.  Every 
one  connected  with  the  owners  of  the  petroleum  wells, 
mines  and  ranches  who  has  taken  root  in  the  provinces 
of  Sonora,  Chihuahua,  Coahuila  and  Lower  California 
wants  to  be  under  American  government  and  the  protec 
tion  of  the  Federal  troops,  whereby  the  property  they 
have  acquired  would  immediately  rise  to  twice  or  perhaps 
ten  times  its  present  value.  This  is  a  temptation  which 
presents  itself  everywhere,  with  this  difference,  that, 
to  the  United  States,  the  temptation  is  much  stronger 
than  it  is  to  our  old  European  states ;  for  in  this  case  we 
have  to  deal,  not  with  some  distant  territory,  but  with  a 
neighboring  country.  For  the  past  fifty  years  the  United 
States  have  been  constantly  extending  and  spreading  to 
ward  everything  around  them.  Will  they  stop  now?  — 
The  question  has  to  be  put  in  this  way. — Or,  nourishing 
high  aspirations,  as  we  shall  see,  to  take  the  lead  in  the  gen 
eral  movement  in  favor  of  peace,  order  and  conciliation,  will 
they  now  plead  the  cause  of  conquest  and  make  themselves 

1  See  "La  Politique  Frangaise  en  Tunisie,"  i  vol.,  8vo,  published  by  Plon, 
Paris,  1890. 
D 


34  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

conspicuous  by  contradicting  themselves  in  the  most 
cynical  way?  They  have  no  lack  of  pretexts  and  excuses. 
We  need  not  delude  ourselves  on  this  head.  They  can, 
first  of  all,  anticipate  a  future  which,  though  decidedly 
doubtful,  is  none  the  less  possible,  and  which  will  inevitably 
be  brought  nearer  by  a  continuance  of  the  revolution. 
The  day  may  come  when  several  out  of  the  twenty-seven 
Mexican  provinces,  tired  of  insecurity  and  impotence  and 
led  away  by  the  maneuvers  to  which  I  have  referred  and 
by  the  unparalleled  success  of  states  that  are  growing 
rich  next  door  to  them  but  across  the  frontier,  will  claim 
the  right  to  be  conquered  as  an  advantage  to  themselves, 
or  will  simply  ask  for  that  of  taking  a  vote  of  the  people 
to  decide  on  their  nationality.  Personally,  I  believe 
that  if  the  United  States  go  on  extending  indefinitely, 
they  will  weaken,  and  end  by  a  split.  Even  supposing 
that  some  of  the  Mexican  provinces  want  to  yield  them 
selves  up  and  that  all  that  has  to  be  done  is  to  take  them, 
all  the  more  pressure  will  have  to  be  brought  to  bear  on 
the  others  which  remain  refractory.  Constant  and  ener 
getic  action  will  be  needed  in  Mexico,  not  to  mention  the 
distrust,  and  also  the  hostility,  which  it  would  be  very 
difficult  to  remove  in  South  America  and  Canada.  At 
present  the  United  States  are  far  from  being  ripe  for  this 
action.  In  any  case,  it  is  clearly  to  their  interest  not  to 
hurry.  It  should  be  fully  realized  that  events  are  urging 
them  on  only  too  fast  as  it  is.  It  is  not  so  easy  for  the 
United  States  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  appeals  of  Americans 
and  foreigners  who  are  imploring  their  assistance  from 
morning  till  night  and  from  night  till  morning  —  assistance 
at  their  own  gates,  on  their  own  frontier,  almost  on  their 
own  soil.  How  are  they  to  resist  these  appeals  which, 
though  interested,  are  interesting  and  moving  and  often 
desperate,  coming  from  compatriots  and  Europeans  who 
have  been  threatened  and  plundered,  crying  out  for  help, 


THE   UNITED   STATES  AND   MEXICO  35 

fleeing  with  their  wives  and  children  from  gangs  of  mur 
derers?  Meanwhile,  the  newspapers  are  circulating  stories 
of  these  scenes  of  horror  and  publishing  photographs, 
letters  and  names.  The  temptation  is  certainly  very 
strong,  and  I  know  more  than  one  American  statesman 
who  would  have  proved  " weaker"  than  Mr.  Taft  and, 
in  his  place,  would  have  patriotically  given  way. 

The  Cogwheel 

Yes,  but  beware  of  putting  your  foot  in  the  cogwheel, 
or  at  any  rate  realize  that  you  will  not  be  able  to  pull  it 
out  again.  Action  of  this  kind  at  a  distance  is  exhausting 
enough  for  a  European  power  and  exceeds  the  strength 
of  a  young  state.  France,  for  instance,  in  less  than  a  cen 
tury,  has  allowed  herself  to  be  dragged  into  one  conquest 
after  another  —  Algeria,  Tunis,  Morocco,  even  Indo-China, 
Madagascar,  West  Africa  and  the  Soudan,  while  holding 
on  to  her  possessions  in  America  and  the  Pacific.  These 
are  a  great  many  conquests  for  one  country  to  undertake 
in  so  short  a  time,  and  a  republican  country  too!  It 
also  remains  to  be  seen  how  she  will  be  able  to  bear  the 
burden  and  risk  of  this  excessive  expansion.  We  have 
some  indication  already  in  her  financial  and  social  diffi 
culties,  now  that  she  has  to  provide  not  only  for  the  mil 
liards  her  wars  in  the  past  have  cost  her,  but  for  the  milliards 
she  needs  for  her  colonial  expeditions,  her  battleships  and 
the  army  that  keeps  all  her  young  men  in  barracks  for 
three  years.  At  any  rate,  she  has  stood  the  strain  of 
this  very  severe  training  up  to  the  present,  just  as  Eng 
land  has  done,  because  she  has  an  old-established  military 
organization  which,  even  now,  is  semi-imperial ;  France, 
thinly  populated  as  she  is,  has  three  armies.  The  United 
States,  on  the  contrary,  have  no  real  armed  force,  except 
their  fleet  and  some  volunteers,  and  they  could  not  have 


36  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

one,  even  if  they  were  much  more  densely  populated, 
without  at  the  same  time  losing  what  constitutes  their 
economic  greatness,  their  unity,  their  prestige  and,  in  a 
word,  their  future,  and  without  renouncing  their  traditions, 
their  principles  and  their  reason  for  existence.  The  policy 
of  a  democracy  cannot  be  that  of  the  Roman  Empire  or 
of  the  Russian  Empire  or  of  any  empire.  The  choice  must 
be  made.  For  the  sake  of  argument,  let  us  consider  as 
nothing  the  risks,  the  difficulties  and  the  duration  of  such 
an  enterprise ;  let  us  suppose  Mexico  to  be  conquered, 
protected  or  administered  by  the  Americans.  "We  could 
not,"  they  themselves  say,  "administer  the  country  with 
out  a  force  and  means  of  action  which  would  be  a  negation 
and  eventually  the  destruction  of  the  system  itself.  To 
act  effectively  in  Mexico,  we  should  have  to  concentrate 
at  Washington  powers  which  would  leave  us  absolutely 
no  liberty  for  ourselves."  "All  arbitrary  power  calls  for 
an  arbitrary  force.  How  is  a  force  of  this  kind  to  be 
limited  and,  once  we  embark  upon  this  course,  where  are 
we  to  stop?  " 

President  Wilson.    Madero.    Huerta 

This  is  evident,  and  this  is  certainly  why  President 
Wilson,  following  President  Taf t,  has  been  as  much  opposed 
as  was  his  predecessor  to  any  policy  of  conquest  in  Mexico. 
But  here  again  complications  occur,  and  men  of  absolute 
mental  tendencies,  in  their  wretched  mania  for  reducing 
everything  to  antitheses  and  dilemmas,  try  to  force 
him  to  choose  between  two  extremes  —  annexation  or 
abstention.  This  would  be  too  simple  a  way  of  dealing 
with  the  question.  The  exiled  president,  Porfirio  Diaz, 
has  left  behind  him  the  prestige  of  a  reign  of  more  than 
thirty  years.  The  country,  having  obeyed  him  like  one 
man,  so  long  as  his  will  was  the  strongest  influence,  has 


THE  UNITED   STATES  AND  MEXICO  37 

been  educating  itself  backwards.  It  is  no  longer  fit  to 
govern  itself.  It  needs  time,  credit  and  order.  An  honest 
man,  President  Madero,  supported  by  General  Huerta, 
took  office.  He  and  his  friends  were  lured  into  a  trap  and 
murdered  under  circumstances  the  horror  of  which  exceeds 
anything  in  Shakespeare.  Thereupon  General  Huerta,  the 
supposed  murderer  (fecit  qui  profuit)  caused  himself  to 
be  proclaimed  president  in  Madero's  place,  and  immediately 
proceeded  to  request  the  foreign  governments  to  recognize 
his  tenure  of  power.  What  power?  That  was  the  first 
question.  Did  he  rule  the  whole  country  as  it  was  ruled 
under  the  iron  hand  of  General  Porfirio  Diaz  ?  Could  he 
go  so  far  as  to  say  that  he  would  govern  Mexico  and  make 
himself  obeyed  and  enforce  respect  for  treaties,  laws  and 
order?  In  the  place  of  a  legal  and  regular  system  could 
he  at  least  produce  any  guarantee  in  the  shape  of  some 
force  which,  whether  accepted  or  merely  endured  by  the 
people,  is  admittedly  predominant  ?  No ;  the  country  was 
only  partly  under  his  rule.  The  Northern  states  accused 
him  of  restoring  a  dictatorship  a  hundred  times  worse 
than  that  of  Diaz  and  of  putting  the  national  clock  back 
three  quarters  of  a  century.  They  called  for  a  con 
stitutional  president,  and  the  outcome  of  the  conflict 
between  the  two  parties  was  destruction  and  bloodshed. 
The  more  he  was  threatened  and  the  more  precarious  he 
felt  his  position  to  be,  the  more  President  Huerta  insisted. 
What  was  the  attitude  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States?  He  proclaimed  his  strong  desire  for  peace,  and 
proved  it  by  his  acts.  In  his  Message  to  Congress  on 
Dec.  2  he  said:  "We  are  Mexico's  friends,  and  that  is 
why  we  do  not  forget  that  we  are  also  the  friends  and 
champions  of  constitutional  government.  We  will  recog 
nize  the  government  of  Mexico  but  not  the  usurpation 
and  destruction  of  that  government." 


38  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

A  Case  of  Conscience 

In  short,  President  Wilson  did  not  care  to  extend  his 
hand  to  a  murderer  who,  unlike  Diaz,  was  not  even  a  for 
tunate  soldier.  He  declined  to  give  his  indorsement  to 
crime  or  his  confidence  to  a  temporary  and  obscure  state 
of  things ;  and  yet  his  opponents  accused  him  of  having 
scruples  and  acting  as  an  intellectual  instead  of  as  a  states 
man.  It  seems  to  be  forgotten  that  Europe  herself  was 
in  no  hurry  to  recognize  the  Portuguese  revolution,  the 
accession  of  the  king  of  Servia  and  even  the  Chinese 
revolution.  It  is  forgotten  that  President  Porfirio  Diaz 
himself  had  to  wait  nearly  a  year  before  President  Hayes 
recognized  him  on  behalf  of  the  United  States,  in  1878, 
and  that  he  had  to  enforce  obedience  from  his  own  people 
before  he  obtained  the  confidence  of  the  world  at  large. 
All  this  is  nothing  more  than  the  ABC  of  politics.  The 
head  of  a  state  is  not  asked  to  produce  certificates  of  vir 
tue,  but,  as  a  matter  of  decency  as  well  as  of  prudence, 
recognition  is  not  given  immediately  to  the  first  person 
who  asks  for  it.  Moreover,  there  is  nothing  to  prove  that, 
after  having  satisfied  his  conscience  by  a  natural  and 
necessary  show  of  repugnance,  President  Wilson  will  not 
end  by  acknowledging  some  genuine  government  legally 
constituted  and  accepted  by  the  country.  If  President 
Wilson  had  not  made  his  protest,  I  would  like  to  know 
how  American  opinion  would  have  received  his  indorse 
ment  of  the  dictatorship  and  his  assistance  in  crushing 
the  revolution.  Is  it  the  duty  of  a  modern  statesman  to 
demoralize  his  country  ? 

The  President's  "Innocence" 

For  these  reasons,  I  respect  the  " scruples"  and  what 
has  been  called  the  " innocence"  of  President  Wilson  and 


THE   UNITED   STATES  AND   MEXICO  39 

his  "masterly  inactivity,"  and  I  ask  myself  whether  these 
scruples  do  not  reflect  the  real  feeling  of  the  United  States, 
for  it  is  easy  to  make  mistakes  about  what  is  called  public 
opinion.  The  genuine  opinion,  which  lies  the  deepest, 
also  has  scruples  and  is  at  times  silent  and  timid.  It 
seldom  makes  its  voice  heard,  whereas  superficial  opinion 
is  always  dinning  its  views  into  our  ears. 

The  Dilemma 

The  worst  of  it  is  that  scruples  do  not  provide  a  means 
of  settling  the  question,  and,  I  repeat,  the  settlement  is 
not  to  be  found  in  either  of  the  two  terms  of  the  dilemma, 
abstention  or  conquest. 

Abstention  may  end  by  becoming  morally  and  materially 
impossible.  This  is  a  fact,  and  this  is  why  I  regret  that 
there  has  been  no  means  of  providing  for  this  impossibility 
by  an  agreement  among  the  Powers.  The  time  may  come 
when,  apart  from  what  the  United  States  think,  the  uni 
versal  conscience  will  be  moved  by  horror  and  indignation 
to  protest  against  a  passive  and  indefinite  abstention  and 
will  declare  that  such  a  state  of  things  has  already  lasted 
long  enough  and  cannot  be  allowed  to  continue. 

When  that  time  comes,  the  government  of  the  United 
States  and  all  the  governments  concerned  will  have  to 
join  hands  in  obedience  to  this  command  or  heartfelt 
ejaculation  or  force  of  circumstances,  whichever  we  may 
call  it. 

A  Moral  Intervention 

Would  this,  then,  be  conquest?  No,  and  no  one  will 
be  deluded  into  considering  it  as  such,  if  the  United  States 
succeed  in  their  endeavor  to  prove  their  disinterestedness 
and  thereby  reassure  South  America,  Canada  and  Europe 
as  a  whole,  and  if  they  do  not  blush  to  act  on  the  principle 
that  "  honesty  is  the  best  policy."  This  will  be  the  in- 


40  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

evi table  intervention,  to  which  I  have  often  referred, 
reduced  to  its  minimum,  which  will  be  either  suspicious  or 
reassuring,  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  intervening  gov 
ernment  and  country;  for  the  problem  will  be  solved  by 
spirit  and  not  by  violence.  Here  is  something  new. 
Violence  will  make  the  situation  hopelessly  involved.  A 
spirit  of  disinterestedness  and  conciliation  and  a  true 
conception  of  the  interest  of  the  United  States  can  alone, 
with  time  and  patience,  solve  the  difficulty. 

I  am  convinced  that  this  spirit  exists  and  predominates 
in  the  United  States.  Whoever  treats  it  as  of  no  account 
will  dig  a  great  gulf  between  his  policy  and  the  country. 

Time  will  show  whether  or  not  there  is  any  foundation 
for  my  optimism. 

The  Hague  Institution 

I  must  add  a  few  words  in  regard  to  the  "moral"  that 
certain  skeptics  are  rather  too  ready  to  deduce  from  the 
Mexico  affair.  Some  writers,  of  not  inconsiderable  weight, 
have  seen  in  it  a  fresh  proof  of  ineffectiveness  on  the  part 
of  the  Hague  institution.1  They  once  more  discover  that 
this  budding  institution,  which,  in  spite  of  all  obstacles, 
has  already  rendered  very  great  services,  was  unable  to 
prevent  the  Transvaal  war,  the  Russo-Japanese  war,  the 
Tur co-Italian  war,  the  Balkan  war  and  so  on,  and  not 
even  the  Mexican  revolution !  The  newspapers  take  up 
the  tale  one  after  the  other,  and  parliaments  vote  all  the 

1  It  is  true  that  the  present  war  in  Europe,  the  violation  of  the  neutrality 
of  Belgium  and  of  all  the  principles  of  the  rights  of  men  —  to  say  nothing 
of  treaties  themselves  —  has,  on  the  other  hand,  bound  together  all  the 
countries  combating  the  aggression  of  Germany  in  a  sort  of  coalition  for 
the  defense  of  the  Right,  and  consequently,  for  the  defense  of  the  work  of 
The  Hague. 

The  present  war  has  brought  into  conflict  two  opposite  camps  totally 
diverse:  On  one  side  the  defenders,  on  the  other  the  despisers  of  the 
Right.  (March,  1915.) 


THE  UNITED   STATES  AND  MEXICO  41 

war  credits  they  are  asked  for  on  the  strength  of  the  argu 
ment  that  never  has  there  been  so  much  fighting. 

The  answer  to  this  is  that  there  was  more  fighting  be 
fore  the  Hague  institution  came  into  being,  and  that 
while  it  has  not  succeeded,  as  if  by  enchantment,  in  teach 
ing  reason  to  the  governments  of  the  great  military  powers, 
it  has  nevertheless  enabled  them,  during  the  past  ten 
years,  to  arrive  at  a  friendly  or  legal  settlement  of  con 
flicts  which,  at  other  times,  would  have  started  general 
conflagrations.  This  is  progress  to  an  immense,  unhoped 
for  and  incalculable  extent,  and  it  is  only  a  beginning,  —  for 
us  the  dawn  of  a  new  day ;  if  only  we  have  faith  to  discern  it. 
Moreover,  nobody  at  the  two  Hague  Congresses  imagined 
it  was  possible  so  to  transform  humanity  as  to  prevent  wars 
and  revolutions  everywhere  and  forever.  We  confined  our 
ambition  to  trying  to  prevent  a  few,  and  in  this  we  suc 
ceeded.  In  common  justice  this  is  what  ought  to  be 
pointed  out,  instead  of  reproaching  us  with  that  which  we 
neither  accomplished  nor  expected  to  accomplish. 

And  now  let  us  go  on  our  way  and  return  to  our  travel 
impressions,  unfortunately  clouded  by  events. 


CHAPTER  III 

CALIFORNIA 

i.  THE  LONG  DISTANCES.  Arizona.  Los  Angeles.  San  Francisco. 
—  2.  LABOR  AND  AGRICULTURE.  —  3.  YELLOW  IMMIGRATION.  — 
4.  AN  ELDORADO.  Touring.  The  American  Cote  d'azur.  From 
Los  Angeles  to  Del  Monte.  Pasadena. 

i.    The  Long  Distances.     Arizona.     Los  Angeles.     San 
Francisco 

EUROPEANS  in  the  United  States  are  invariably  baffled 
at  first  by  the  great  distance  between  one  place  and  another 
and  the  endless  extent  of  sparsely  populated  country.  In 
Texas,  for  instance,  which  is  rich  in  resources,  but  poor 
up  to  the  present  as  regards  water,  one  can  travel  on  the 
railroad  for  two  days  through  what  is  nothing  but  a  desert, 
while  fertile  California,  which,  like  Texas,  is  larger  than 
France,  has  only  two  million  inhabitants,  the  large  number  of 
whom  live  in  the  towns  and  cities.  The  new  state  of  Ari 
zona  looks  as  large  as  Texas  and  more  desert,  if  possible. 
The  journey  from  Los  Angeles  to  San  Francisco  takes  up  an 
entire  day,  or  more  than  twelve  hours,  from  morning  to 
evening.  No  doubt  the  trains  are  slow  and  the  lines  have 
only  a  single  track ;  but  if  the  European  tries  to  imagine  a 
France  with  fewer  people  than  Paris,  New  York  or  Chicago, 
the  problems  connected  with  the  future  of  this  country  will 
immediately  present  themselves  in  a  new  light. 

A  country  such  as  this  is  evidently  destined  to  become 
a  nursery,  not  only  for  plants,  but  for  men  and  ideas,  and 
a  field  for  new  experiments,  the  results  of  which  will  react 

42 


CALIFORNIA  43 

upon  and  transform  the  Old  World ;  but,  in  the  meantime, 
any  attempt  by  European  travelers,  statesmen  and  writers 
to  forecast  the  future  of  the  United  States  with  any  degree 
of  exactitude  can  only  be  unreliable  —  even  more  so  than 
the  predictions  that  mature  age  is  so  fond  of  making  as  to 
young  men's  futures. 

However,  the  public  idea  of  distance  is  steadily  under 
going  alteration,  even  in  Europe.  Great  cities,  such  as 
Berlin,  London  and  Moscow,  are,  like  Paris,  extending  in 
all  directions.  Electric  tramways  have  enabled  new 
American  cities  to  be  laid  out  on  an  immense  scale,  leaving 
plenty  of  space  for  parks,  avenues,  squares,  promenades, 
schools,  museums  and  other  public  institutions.  This 
has  not  prevented  the  building  of  skyscrapers  in  the  busi 
ness  districts.  Do  what  he  will,  it  is  not  at  all  easy  for  a 
European  to  become  accustomed  to  the  long  journeys  he 
has  to  make,  and  to  set  aside  the  right  amount  of  time  for 
them.  In  Washington,  the  residential  districts  and  the 
embassies  are  a  very  long  way  from  the  Capitol  —  a  fact 
which  does  not  seem  to  strike  the  Americans  at  all.  At 
Los  Angeles,  where  my  host  lived  in  a  villa  in  the  best, 
I  might  say  the  most  sumptuous,  part  of  the  city,  I  was 
seven  miles  from  the  railroad  depot.  When  I  was  at 
San  Francisco,  I  had  to  lecture  at  the  University  of  Cali 
fornia,  which  is  at  Berkeley,  and  Leland  Stanford  Uni 
versity  at  Palo  Alto.  To  reach  Berkeley,  which  I  took 
to  be  a  suburb,  and  where  a  great  many  San  Franciscans 
live,  I  had  first  of  all  to  get  to  the  landing  stage  of  the  big 
ferryboats  that  cross  the  bay,  as  the  New  York  boats 
cross  the  Hudson  River,  and  then  take  an  electric  car. 
This  means  an  hour's  journey  each  way,  every  day,  for 
business  men.  Palo  Alto  can  be  reached  by  railroad 
alone,  but  this  also  involves  an  hour's  journey.  No  one 
thinks  anything  of  it.  People  make  their  arrangements 
accordingly;  read,  relax  and  rest.  Constantly  repeated 


44  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

short  journeys  of  this  kind  are  no  doubt  counted  as  so 
much  rest  by  Americans.  They  think  nothing  of  traveling. 
I  saw  an  old  man  of  ninety-two,  my  admirable  and  re 
gretted  friend,  John  Bigelow,  start  from  New  York  on  an 
annual  round  of  visits  in  Europe.  Young  men  and  girls 
cross  the  American  continent  in  all  directions  on  the 
slightest  pretext,  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  others  and 
fraternize  with  them.  I  know  old  San  Franciscans,  Ra 
phael  Weill,  for  instance,  who  go  to  France  every  year  and 
are  surprised  at  my  surprise.  They  make  humorous  com 
parisons  between  the  distances  people  travel  nowadays 
and  fifty  years  ago,  when  it  took  at  least  a  month  or  a 
month  and  a  half  to  go  from  Havre  to  New  York  and  as 
much  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco.  Far  from  com 
plaining  of  the  number  of  days  occupied  by  these  journeys, 
they  congratulate  themselves  on  its  smallness,  and  they 
profit  by  it. 

2.   Labor  and  Agriculture 

To  live  on  such  a  scale,  people  must  have  large  incomes, 
and,  in  this  connection,  all  sorts  of  problems  crop  up. 
To  begin  with,  how  is  such  a  vast  country  to  be  organized, 
and  with  what  kind  of  inhabitants?  and  where  are  the 
inhabitants  themselves  to  be  found?  Americans  are  too 
busy  to  burden  themselves  with  large  families,  and  they 
have  to  fall  back  upon  adoption,  that  is  to  say,  immigra 
tion.  European  immigration  is  not  sufficient,  and,  as  we 
shall  see  further  on,  its  best  sources  are  drying  up.  It 
provides  only  a  comparatively  infinitesimal  number  of 
hands  for  agriculture  and  domestic  service.  The  result  is 
that  living  is  expensive  and  that  skilled  European  work 
men  do  not  settle  in  California  unless  they  can  obtain 
very  high  wages.  Masons  and  carpenters  are  paid  at  what 
look  like  exorbitant  rates,  amounting  in  some  cases  to 
eight  dollars  a  day.  To  be  exact,  a  carpenter  can  earn 


CALIFORNIA  45 

up  to  six  dollars  and  a  mason  or  bricklayer  up  to  seven 
or  eight  dollars  for  a  day's  work,  strictly  limited  to  eight 
hours,  and  even  these  rates  are  lower  than  formerly.  When 
the  work  of  rebuilding  the  city  was  at  its  height,  men  were 
paid  as  much  as  eleven  dollars  a  day  and  a  dollar  an  hour 
overtime.  This  is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  men  have 
a  powerful  union  and  can  and  do  dictate  terms.  Each  craft 
regulates  its  own  wages.  Only  the  art  workmen  or  spe 
cialists,  having  no  union,  are  in  less  demand  and,  con 
sequently,  are  not  so  well  treated.  There  are  very  few 
negroes  in  California.  The  climate  on  the  coast  does  not 
suit  them,  and  moreover  they  have  been  crowded  out  by 
the  yellow  races. 

To  get  over  the  difficulty  of  finding  cooks,  maids  and 
other  servants,  people  contrive  to  secure  Chinese  cooks 
and  Japanese  valets,  butlers  and  grooms.  There  are  no 
women  at  all  in  the  leading  hotel  at  Seattle.  Young  Japan 
ese,  known  as  "  bellboys,"  take  the  place  of  kitchenmaids 
and  chambermaids.  A  few  privileged  hotel  proprietors 
engage  Scandinavian  girls.  There  are  various  specialties. 
For  instance,  the  washing  is  now  done  by  Frenchmen  at 
San  Francisco  instead  of  Chinese,  and  the  French  form  a 
large  and  much-esteemed  colony,  by  whom  I  was  feted. 
Unlike  many  others,  they  cause  no  trouble.  There  are  also 
French  waiters,  who  are  doing  well.  Of  course  I  do  not 
take  into  account  exceptional  cases,  such  as  the  wages  paid 
to  some  chauffeurs  when  motor  cars  were  in  their  infancy, 
or  even  the  celebrated  French  chef  who,  to  my  knowledge, 
was  paid  fifteen  thousand  dollars  a  year  by  a  big  New 
York  hotel  and  was  at  liberty  to  spend  six  months  of  the 
year  in  France. 

But  then  comes  the  agricultural  problem.  The  Cali- 
fornian  farmer  not  only  has  to  till  a  magnificent  soil,  pro 
ducing  all  kinds  of  fruit,  vegetables  and  cereals,  but  he 
has  to  attend  to  the  industrial  part  of  his  business,  such 


46  AMERICA   AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

as  the  reaping,  packing  in  cans  or  otherwise,  conveyance 
to  markets,  sale  and  export.  It  is  a  combination  of  agri 
culture,  industry  and  commerce  which  cannot  be  ef 
fected  without  men  and  money,  in  a  country  which,  having 
no  population,  has  few  roads  outside  the  railways  and 
tramways.  The  difficulty  is  generally  met  by  keeping 
near  the  main  lines  of  railroad  or  breeding  horses  on  a 
large  scale,  pending  the  coming  of  the  motor  car. 

Let  me  describe  briefly  how  the  raising  of  live  stock  is 
generally  carried  on,  between  San  Francisco  and  Sacra 
mento,  for  instance,  with  the  smallest  amount  of  help, 
and  how  it  is  combined  with  agriculture.  On  either  side 
of  the  railroad,  at  the  foot  of  the  majestic  chain  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada,  stretches  a  limitless,  uninterrupted  green 
plain.  Here  browse  and  multiply  flocks  of  sheep  and 
lambs,  in  quantities  exceeding  all  that  I  had  ever  imagined. 
Further  on  are  herds  of  cows,  also  very  numerous,  with 
the  dairy  —  very  simple,  but  large  and  well  contrived  — 
in  the  middle.  Then  we  come  to  the  horses,  and  here 
and  there  are  the  turkeys,  chickens  and  hogs.  The  horses 
are  gradually  broken  in  by  cowboys,  first  for  riding  and 
then  for  harness.  When  the  time  comes  for  plowing, 
harrowing  or  rolling,  the  farmer  takes  as  many  horses  as 
he  wants  from  the  ranch  where  they  are  all  left  at  liberty ; 
a  young  horse  is  harnessed  between  two  old  ones,  and  so 
on.  With  teams  of  six  or  eight,  or  even  more,  immense 
fields  are  soon  made  ready  for  sowing;  and  afterwards, 
if  there  is  a  rush  to  get  in  the  harvest,  the  farmer  who  has 
finished  first  hires  out  his  teams  to  others.  All  this  is 
becoming  simplified  in  proportion  as  estates  are  split  up 
or,  rather,  lose  their  enormous  size ;  but  still  the  supply 
of  labor  is  insufficient,  because  cereal  growing  is  not 
everything;  there  are  fruits  to  be  gathered  and  packed, 
cows  to  be  milked  and  so  on.  This  is  where  the  problem 
of  Chinese,  Hindu  and  Japanese  immigration  comes  in. 


CALIFORNIA  47 

3.    Yellow  Immigration 

Nobody  wants  coolie  immigration  on  a  large  scale.  It 
would  be  too  much  for  some  states,  particularly  California. 
It  would  bring  wages  down  to  starvation  point,  for  the 
American  workman,  whose  numerous  needs  are  out  of  all 
comparison  with  Oriental  simplicity.  Negro  competition 
does  not  constitute  the  same  problem  in  those  states  in 
which  they  are  more  numerous  than  they  are  in  California, 
because,  unlike  Japanese  and  Chinese,  who  take  all  their 
savings  home  to  their  own  country,  the  negroes  spend 
their  money  where  they  earn  it  and,  consequently,  work 
less  regularly.  The  immigration  of  yellow  workers  on  a 
large  scale,  supposing  the  American  workman  made  up 
his  mind  to  submit  to  it,  would  also  pave  the  way  to  a 
serious  danger  for  the  United  States  —  a  danger  which 
it  is  to  the  interest  of  every  civilized  country,  including 
Japan  as  well  as  Europe  and  America,  to  prevent.  The 
country  would  be  divided  into  three  classes  at  least,  the 
first  consisting  of  the  dominant  white  race,  the  second  of 
the  subordinated  yellow  race,  and  the  third  of  unemployed 
and  wastrels  —  the  dregs,  in  fact,  of  the  population.  This 
would  be  in  contradiction  to,  and  the  end  of  the  democratic 
system  in  the  United  States.  It  would  mean  what  might 
be  called  the  automatic  preparation  of  dictatorship,  decom 
position  and  anarchy.  The  question  of  importing  yellow 
labor,  even  into  Europe,  has  been  more  than  once  raised, 
and  there  does  not  seem  to  be  anything  out  of  the  way 
in  the  idea  of  a  factory  run  by  European  foremen  and 
overseers  and  imported  labor;  but  no  one  has  ventured, 
or  will  venture,  on  such  a  revolutionary  enterprise.  The 
Japanese  themselves  do  not  want  to  see  too  many  openings 
for  yellow  labor  in  the  United  States,  principally  because 
it  is  not  to  their  interest  to  help  American  competition, 
and  also  because  they  do  not  care  to  create  a  source  of 


48  AMERICA   AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

constant  trouble  and  conflict  with  America,  which  would 
be  as  injurious  to  one  country  as  to  the  other. 

Are  we  to  conclude  that  yellow  immigration  in  America 
should  be  stopped  altogether?  This  question,  like  others, 
is  one  of  moderation  and  tact.  The  problem  will  be  and 
is  being  solved  by  observing  mutual  consideration  and 
following  a  middle  course. 

Japanese  "intellectuals"  are  admitted  to  American 
universities,  and  I  saw  a  considerable  number  of  them  at 
Stanford.  They  live  on  terms  of  comradeship  with  Ameri 
can  students.  A  great  many  Chinese  and  Japanese  ser 
vants  remained  in  California  or  returned  there  after  the 
passing  of  the  immigration  laws  a  few  years  ago.  The 
Hawaiian  islands,  which  are  full  of  Japanese,  but  have 
become  American,  have  acted  as  a  naturalization  center  for 
many  of  them,  and  this  process  has  been  carried  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  Japanese  government  spontaneously  took 
steps  to  prevent  such  an  abuse  of  emigration. 

By  law,  the  United  States  government  places  the  immigra 
tion  of  yellow  labor  on  the  same  footing  as  foreign  immi 
gration  in  general;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  state 
legislatures,  and,  to  a  still  greater  extent,  public  opinion 
and  the  Press,  in  the  states  concerned,  are  more  or  less 
masters  of  the  situation  as  regards  opposition  to  coolie 
immigration.  It  is  clear  that  a  few  thousand  Japanese  at 
San  Francisco  can  always  be  boycotted  or  at  any  rate  wor 
ried.  This  is  a  local  question  which  the  Federal  govern 
ment  is  no  more  able  than  the  Japanese  government  to 
settle  as  it  pleases. 

Due  account  must  be  taken  of  the  temper  of  the  work 
ing  classes  and  of  the  Press.  This  temper  changes  under 
the  influence  of  education,  reason  and  experience,  but  the 
process  takes  time.  For  instance,  Japanese  servants  are 
much  more  welcome  at  Seattle,  in  the  state  of  Washington, 
than  they  are  at  San  Francisco.  Why?  I  am  told  that 


CALIFORNIA  49 

California  has  a  sort  of  Patriotic  League  which  acts  on 
the  more  impressionable  and  excites  them  continually 
against  Japan.  At  present  these  incitements  have  very 
little  effect.  In  any  case,  there  is  no  such  league  at  Seattle, 
where  people  even  regret  the  restriction  of  emigration  by 
the  Japanese  government  and  would  like  to  have  more 
Japanese  in  the  country.  The  stories  of  Japanese  acting 
as  spies  are  treated  with  ridicule.  "  Those  who  come/' 
I  am  told,  "are  nearly  all  educated  young  men  who  want 
to  learn.  They  all  study  English,  and  conscientiously 
jot  down  words  they  want  to  remember,  whereupon  they 
are  promptly  denounced  as  spies.  This  kind  of  thing 
strikes  us  as  laughable.  What  is  there  to  spy  about  here? 
What  have  we  to  hide?  Such  suspicions  are  absurd,  but 
they  check  the  desired  immigration  more  effectually 
than  laws  could  do.  There  are  only  3000  Japanese  at 
San  Francisco,  and  more  than  three  times  that  number 
—  10,000  —  at  Seattle,  and  yet  all  the  objections  come 
from  San  Francisco,  where  there  is  a  political  anti- Japanese 
organization  run  by  a  few  cranks  and  supported  by  unedu 
cated  people.  If  you  take  all  the  Japanese  in  California, 
you  would  not  find  40,000 ;  and  half  that  number  for  the 
state  of  Washington  and  not  quite  so  many  for  the  rest 
of  the  United  States,  and  you  have  a  total  of  less  than 
100,000  Japanese  in  the  whole  of  the  Union.  It  is  a  case 
of  much  ado  about  very  little." 

What  we  need  is  to  face  the  facts.  European  and 
American  missionaries  have  been  at  work  in  continually 
increasing  numbers  in  China  and  Japan  for  nearly  half  a 
century;  we  have  insisted  on  teaching  the  yellow  race, 
and  now  we  are  surprised  because,  after  having  been  taught 
by  us,  they  travel  and  complete  their  education!  There 
are  young  Chinese,  holding  scholarships,  all  over  Europe. 
Who  invites  them  but  the  governments  themselves,  with 
the  consent  of  our  own  manufacturers,  who  want  customers  ? 


5<D  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

In  my  own  native  district,  the  Sarthe,  I  used  to  see  a  class 
of  Chinese  students  every  year  at  our  military  school  at 
La  Fleche.  There  were  about  forty  of  them  two  years 
ago,  all  very  intelligent,  steady  and  interested  in  every 
thing  —  in  military  science,  which  we  teach  them,  as  in 
agriculture,  with  which  they  are  acquainted.  After 
leaving  the  school  they  serve  for  a  time  in  our  regiments 
or  at  the  military  academies  (St.  Cyr  and  Saumur).  They 
are  to  be  found  all  over  France  and  all  over  Europe.  How 
can  we  wonder  at  other  Chinese  crossing  the  Pacific  so  as 
to  learn  English  and  visit  America  ?  Chinese  and  Japanese 
commissions  go  all  over  the  world.  In  what  way  are  they 
a  special  danger  for  America? 

By  whatever  means  it  is  brought  about,  a  process  of 
trickling  in  is  going  on,  owing  to  a  more  or  less  tacit  agree 
ment  between  the  two  governments,  but  it  is  certainly 
not  a  flood,  and  this  trickle  is  a  long  way  from  providing 
California  with  the  labor  she  requires  to  develop  as  Oregon 
and  the  other  Western  states  have  done.  Considering 
the  difficulties,  one  cannot  but  admire  the  manner  in 
which  the  Americans  have  made  their  west  coast  what  it 
is,  and,  still  more,  what  it  promises  to  be.  We  have  been 
confronted  with  the  same  questions  in  our  colonies.  With 
such  a  low  birth  rate  as  ours,  what  could  we  do  in  Northern 
Africa  without  the  Arabs,  Moors  and  Kabyles,  not  to  men 
tion  Tunisians,  Sicilians,  Maltese  and  Spaniards? 

4.   An  Eldorado.     Touring.     From  Los  Angeles  to  Del 
Monte.    Pasadena 

California  is,  like  our  North  African  colonies,  a  garden 
that  flourishes  in  spite  of  unfavorable  circumstances 
and  the  earthquakes  that  occurred  four  years  ago.  They 
are  already  forgotten,  but  they  made  their  sinister,  destruc 
tive  fury  only  too  evident,  and,  as  they  follow  an  almost 


CALIFORNIA  5 1 

invariable  course,  there  is  no  denying  that  they  may  occur 
again,  here  as  elsewhere.  This  country  is,  as  I  have  said, 
a  garden,  and  what  a  garden !  I  thought  the  people  who 
told  me  about  it  must  be  exaggerating,  but  the  soil  calls 
every  one  to  witness  its  fertility,  and  we  can  estimate  it 
by  its  magnificent  trees.  The  oaks,  cedars,  pines,  rubber 
trees  and  sequoias  or  redwood  trees,  in  fact  everything 
that  is  left  of  the  wonderful  Californian  forests  and  has 
not  been  burned  or  rooted  up,  helps  to  give  one  an  idea  of 
the  astounding  richness  of  this  country.  From  Los  Angeles 
to  San  Francisco  the  railway  runs  alongside  the  Pacific, 
at  the  foot  of  great  undulating  hills.  They  are  not  moun 
tains,  and  their  mighty  green-clad  curves  look  like  im 
mense  meadows  lifted  up  by  a  heaving  ocean.  When 
the  upward  and  downward  wave  of  hill  and  forest  at  length 
subsides  and  the  train  finds  its  way  into  flat  country,  we 
come  to  an  endless  succession  of  plantations.  It  was  spring 
when  I  came  here,  and  I  could  see  orchards  of  orange 
trees,  vines,  plum  trees,  apricot  trees,  cherry  trees,  almond 
trees  and  fig  trees.  It  was  like  hundreds  and  hundreds 
of  acres  of  a  trim,  well-kept,  flowered  carpet  spread  over 
miles  and  miles  of  country.  All  this  fruit,  after  being 
gathered  in  the  season,  is  generally  sorted  by  machinery. 
The  grapeseeds  are  extracted  by  machinery,  after  which 
the  fruit  is  exported  in  the  form  of  raisins.  The  plums 
are  packed  in  boxes,  also  by  machinery  (with  the  best 
fruit  on  top  and  the  others  underneath!).  All  kinds  of 
jams,  marmalades  and  jellies,  and  also  wine,  are  made. 
It  is  even  asserted  that  Bordeaux  people  import  wine  from 
California,  but  official  statistics  are  against  this,  for  the 
excellent  reason  that  Californian  wine  is  very  dear,  even 
on  the  spot.  It  costs  the  grower  more  than  twenty  cents 
a  bottle,  and  of  course  the  twenty  cents  expand  into  a 
dollar  at  a  restaurant.  Californian  clarets  are  none  the 
less  good,  though  much  coarser  than  ours.  They  have 


52  AMERICA   AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

been  a  source  of  wealth  to  various  Italian-Californians 
whose  palaces  I  have  seen.  Mere  cook-boys  twenty  years 
ago,  they  are  now  very  important  and  much-esteemed 
men,  worth  millions.  When  we  remember  that  this  country 
became  known  through  its  gold  mines  and  that  all  these 
flourishing  crops  have  been  added,  taking  the  place  of 
forest  or  desert,  thanks  to  irrigation,  we  must  admit  that 
the  efforts  of  man  and  of  civilization  deserve  something 
better  than  the  disdain  of  skeptics. 

With  all  this,  I  have  said  nothing  about  the  crops  of 
vegetables,  maize,  rice,  potatoes,  artichokes,  endives, 
olives  and  beetroot.  I  am  in  danger  of  forgetting  that 
there  are  all  kinds  of  climate  here,  including  night  mists 
that  keep  the  grass  fresh  and  green  through  the  heat  of 
summer  and  help  to  provide  pasture  for  the  innumerable 
cows  I  have  already  mentioned  but  whose  milk  I  have  not 
extolled  as  it  deserves.  From  it  the  Californians  make 
cream,  celebrated  all  over  America,  and  a  San  Francisco 
butter  which  is  certainly  the  best  I  have  tasted  since  I 
left  France  and  is  equal  to  good  Danish  or  Normandy 
butter.  I  can  say  as  much  for  the  meat,  poultry  and  fish. 
Californian  cooking  is  a  surprise  and  a  delight  for  a 
Frenchman,  no  matter  how  particular  or  entitled  to  be 
particular  he  may  be.  The  Californians  have  as  culti 
vated  palates  as  the  French,  and  a  taste  for  good  cheer 
and  appetizing  dishes.  Anything  served  at  their  tables  can 
be  eaten  with  confidence.  What  wonders  our  cooks  could 
accomplish  here !  If  I  were  the  state  of  California,  I  would 
start  a  French  cookery  school  at  San  Francisco.  It  would 
be  all  that  is  wanted  to  complete  Californian  culture. 

The  cultivation  of  all  these  different  kinds  of  produce  of  the 
soil  demands  not  only  labor,  but  care,  science  and  education, 
and  the  universities  devote  part  of  their  teaching  to  this. 

The  earth  does  not  confine  itself  to  producing  gold  and 
eatables.  We  must  not  overlook  petroleum,  which  crops 


CALIFORNIA  53 

up  in  all  sorts  of  places,  even  on  the  seashore ;  and  petro 
leum,  like  the  grapevine,  has  created  a  great  deal  of  wealth. 
I  have  heard  of  a  Los  Angeles  surveyor  who  could  get  very 
little  money  out  of  his  clients  and  had  to  take  a  few  odd  bits 
of  land  as  payment  instead.  Up  to  the  time  of  his  death  he 
was  trying  in  vain  to  find  a  buyer  for  his  scraps  of  real  es 
tate,  and  his  widow  was  equally  unsuccessful ;  but  one  fine 
day  petroleum  wells  were  discovered  on  adjoining  land,  and 
then  on  her  land,  so  that  now,  instead  of  being  hard  up,  she 
has  an  income  of  not  less  than  a  thousand  dollars  a  day 
from  what  is  on  her  land  and  under  it.  Petroleum  is  used 
here  instead  of  coal  to  run  locomotives,  factory  furnaces 
and  even  the  machinery  in  the  big  San  Francisco  stores.  I 
saw  some  of  this  machinery,  and  found  that  a  very  high 
and  regular  temperature  was  obtained  by  a  mixture  of  petro 
leum  vapor  and  air,  without  smell  and  without  accidents : 
a  remarkable  instance  of  progress. 

Agriculture  and  mining  are  of  little  importance,  my  Los 
Angeles  friends  tell  me,  in  comparison  with  the  newest  of 
the  great  resources  the  country  possesses  —  tourist  traffic. 

The  climate,  the  beauty  and  variety  of  the  scenery  and  the 
excellence  of  its  products  have  attracted  a  steadily  growing 
clientele  to  California.  It  is  the  United  States'  Riviera. 

No  one  who  has  not  seen  the  surroundings  of  Los  Angeles 
—  Pasadena,  for  instance  —  or  such  coast  resorts  as  Santa 
Barbara  and  Del  Monte  can  form  any  idea  of  what  these 
favored  places  are  or  what  they  will  be.  I  do  not  say 
this  district  can  compete  with  our  Riviera.  On  the  con 
trary,  I  consider  that  the  Pacific  will  not  attain  the  same 
standard  of  brilliant,  majestic  beauty  as  the  Mediterranean, 
always  provided  that  we  do  not  spoil  Nature  with  the 
works  of  our  hands.  That  sea  will  ever  stand  alone  as 
the  birthplace  of  our  civilization ;  but  no  one  who  has  not 
seen  the  Californian  Riviera  can  imagine  what  American 
civilization  has  already  produced. 


54  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

I  have  lived  happily  in  France ;  I  know  England  and  the 
shady  groves  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge;  I  have  seen  the 
spring  in  Algerian  oases;  and  I  thought  myself  blase; 
but  I  found  that  the  Americans  have  covered  the  most 
beautiful  valleys  in  California  with  grass,  flowers  and 
fruit,  and  have  created  therein,  with  their  cottages  designed 
after  the  most  refined  style  of  English  domestic  architec 
ture,  their  artificial  rain  and  their  schools  of  landscape 
gardening  and  horticulture,  what  I  can  only  call  offshoots 
of  the  terrestrial  paradise. 

Every  villa  at  Pasadena  stands  amid  its  own  lawns, 
shaded  by  its  own  roof.  Every  cottage  is  different  from 
its  neighbor  and  is  covered  with  roses  and  geranium  creepers. 
The  place  is  one  mass  of  palms,  mimosas,  ever-green  oaks, 
carob  trees  and  magnolias.  Here  and  there  the  sun  sends 
a  shaft  of  light  through  the  deep  shade  to  some  brilliant 
flower  bed  and  fills  the  odorous  blossoms  —  honeysuckle, 
wallflower,  heliotrope  and  glycina  —  with  perfume.  The 
flowers  of  every  garden  in  the  world  are  here  assembled 
in  one. 

Over  all  the  gardens  created  by  Americans  hovers 
inspiration  in  the  form  of  the  American  woman.  I  shall 
have  something  to  say  about  her  as  I  shall  of  the  delight 
ful  way  in  which  girls  and  young  men  associate  in  the 
California  universities.  I  shall  also  revert  to  a  question 
that  interests  a  great  many  people  here,  as  elsewhere : 
the  so-called  Japanese  peril.  Will  the  Japanese  interfere 
with  the  development  of  the  new  continent  and,  conse 
quently,  with  the  peace  of  the  world  at  large?  Are  they 
or  are  they  not  making  ready  for  war?  Is  war  between 
the  United  States  and  Japan  possible?  I  have  discussed 
this  question,  with  the  consent  of  my  American  and  Jap 
anese  friends,  in  my  lectures  in  the  Far  West ;  and  farther 
on  I  will  summarize  my  impressions  with  the  utmost 
possible  impartiality. 


CHAPTER  IV 

WOMAN   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

i.  Ax  THE  UNIVERSITIES.  Berkeley.  The  girls'  dinner.  Volun 
tary  servants.  Young  Americans  traveling  in  France.  —  2.  AN 
ELECTION  CAMPAIGN.  For  or  against  women.  The  boulevards  of 
Paris.  Miserable  young  girls.  The  three  husbands. — 3.  THE 
FRENCH  WOMAN.  A  French  wife.  —  4.  VOTES  FOR  WOMEN. 
The  suffragettes  in  England.  Their  devotedness  and  services  dur 
ing  the  war.  The  necessary  struggle.  The  rights  of  the  man. 
The  woman  and  the  child  forgotten.  The  good  man  is  shy. 
Triumph  of  the  women.  The  seaports  and  pleasure  cities. 

i.  At  the  Universities.    Berkeley.    Stanford 

IN  the  Eastern  states,  people  are  beginning  to  discuss 
the  question  of  coeducation  for  the  two  sexes.  In  the 
West,  it  seems  to  have  been  definitely  settled  in  the  af 
firmative.  At  Stanford  University  and  at  Berkeley,  and 
afterward  at  Salt  Lake  City,  in  Colorado,  Seattle  and 
Chicago  I  spoke  to  mixed  audiences  of  young  men  and  girls 
of  from  eighteen  to  twenty,  all  remarkably  attentive  to 
my  explanation  of  the  new  ideas.  I  spent  an  afternoon 
and  an  evening  at  Berkeley,  where  one  of  my  principal 
university  addresses  was  given,  under  the  presidency  of 
Dr.  Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler ;  and  no  one  could  wish  to  have 
a  more  intelligent,  united  and  responsive  audience.  At 
Stanford,  I  spent  the  whole  day  with  President  David  Starr 
Jordan,  and  the  young  men  students  invited  me  to  visit 
their  houses  and  dormitories.  They  are  allowed  to  choose 
between  two  entirely  different  styles  of  living.  Some  of 
them,  divided  into  groups  of  twenty  or  twenty-five,  live 

55 


56  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

in  small  villas,  where  they  are  their  own  masters,  under 
the  management  of  one  of  their  number,  whom  they  elect 
president  in  virtue  of  his  ability  and  merit.  They  study, 
play  outdoor  games,  practice  athletic  sports  and  sleep 
in  the  open  air  in  all  weathers.  In  the  evening  they  meet 
in  the  parlor  —  of  course  with  draughts  still  playing  all 
round  them  —  and  devote  themselves  to  music  and  various 
amusements.  Others  lead  exactly  the  same  life  in  a  larger 
building,  where  they  number  several  hundred,  but  are 
just  as  free  as  the  others. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  girls.  Groups  of  them  have  their 
houses  and  gardens,  or  their  independent  dormitory. 
The  houses  occupied  by  the  girls  and  youths  are  close 
together  and  intermingled,  and  there  is  never  a  breath  of 
scandal.  The  girls  go  about  freely  all  day,  and  even  at 
night,  in  the  gardens  and  streets  and  on  the  playgrounds. 
They  play  games,  ride  (always  astride)  and  gallop  about 
bareheaded,  just  as  they  go  on  foot.  They  are  not  afraid 
of  anything  —  neither  the  air,  nor  the  cold,  nor  the  heat, 
nor  of  any  one  looking  at  them. 

The  Girls'  Dinner.     Voluntary  Servants 

When  I  had  finished  my  automobile  drive  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  the  university  and  my  three  or  four  speeches. 
I  received  an  invitation  to  dinner  in  one  of  the  girls'  pavil 
ions.  The  girls  were  all  dressed  in  their  best,  in  white  or 
pink,  and  it  was  delightful  to  see  them  looking  so  fresh, 
with  their  fair  or  dark  hair,  their  blue  or  dark  eyes,  smiling 
and  confident. 

In  addition  to  the  two  Japanese  students  who  waited 
on  this  gathering  of  youth  and  grace,  there  was,  strange 
to  say,  a  tall  young  man,  very  quiet  and  simple  —  an 
American,  who  was  also  serving.  He  was  a  student, 
working  as  a  servant,  in  accordance  with  a  custom  which 


WOMAN   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES  57 

prevails  all  over  the  United  States  among  young  men 
whose  means  do  not  enable  them  to  pay  the  expenses  of 
their  college  course.  It  was  done  so  simply  and  naturally 
that  no  one  but  a  brute  could  have  made  facetious  remarks 
about  it  in  such  a  company  or  asked  how  such  paradoxes 
were  possible.  From  time  to  time  during  the  meal  the 
girls  stopped  talking,  in  obedience  to  an  imperceptible 
sign  from  one  of  them,  and  without  standing  up,  began  to 
sing  a  part-song.  It  was  either  lively,  sentimental  or  witty, 
but  the  lively  element  predominated.  Then  they  stopped, 
the  talk  and  laughter  began  again,  and  presently  came  an 
other  song.  The  dinner  seemed  a  very  short  one  to  me. 

After  that  I  went  to  see  the  young  men,  to  the  number 
of  several  hundred,  and  made  them  a  speech,  amid  frightful 
draughts.  It  was  a  pleasure  to  see  their  fresh  and  open 
countenances.  All  these  young  people  have  no  thought 
of  evil ;  but  it  will  be  all  the  more  easy  to  deceive  them 
and  lead  them  astray,  and  how  necessary  it  is  to  put  them 
on  their  guard,  not  only  against  their  own  mistakes,  but 
against  those  committed  by  governments !  I  have  often 
expressed  such  fears  on  leaving  these  young  men  and  girls, 
abandoned,  so  to  speak,  as  they  were,  to  their  own  instincts. 
Finally,  however,  I  began  to  wonder  whether  this  kind  of 
education  is  not  the  best  of  safeguards,  and  whether  the 
use  of  liberty  is  not  the  best  form  of  precaution  and  dis 
cipline. 

Young  Americans  traveling  in  France 

It  would  be  a  mistake  for  our  young  Frenchmen  to 
suppose  that  an  American  education  is  good  only  for  the 
muscles  and  nerves  and  that,  in  all  other  respects,  it  simply 
produces  innocents  who  cannot  make  their  way  outside 
of  their  own  country.  On  the  contrary,  it  turns  out  men 
who  are  at  home  anywhere.  Here  is  one  instance  out  of  a 
thousand.  I  had  returned  to  Paris  and  was  leaving  my 


58  AMERICA   AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

house  one  day  to  go  to  the  senate.  It  was  on  July  13, 
the  day  before  the  national  festival.  I  was  late,  as  usual, 
and  while  I  was  going  downstairs,  I  ran  into  two  tall  young 
men  dressed  in  gray  flannel  suits  and  so  obviously  American 
that  I  stopped,  just  as  they  did.  They  were  two  students 
from  Stanford  who  had  been  present  at  my  lectures  and 
had  come  to  call  on  me ;  but  they  did  not  want  to  disturb 
me;  they  were  touring  in  the  simplest  way  on  bicycles, 
and  their  vacation  was  nearly  over.  In  spite  of  the  dread 
ful  hurry  I  was  in,  and  my  consciousness  that  I  was  im 
patiently  awaited,  I  should  have  been  glad  to  show  my 
liking  for  these  young  men,  but  I  had  to  confine  myself 
to  scribbling  a  few  words  on  my  card  to  help  them  see  the 
review,  and  also  jotting  down  my  address  in  the  Depart 
ment  of  the  Sarthe,  with  a  few  brief  directions  about  the 
best  way  to  go  there. 

Three  days  afterwards  they  made  their  appearance  at 
La  Fleche  as  unconcernedly  as  if  they  had  been  my  neigh 
bors.  They  could  not  speak  French,  but  they  were  so 
pleasant,  natural  and  well-behaved  that  they  found  people 
willing  to  help  them  everywhere.  More  than  this,  they  had 
managed  to  pass  through  the  crowd  and  the  lines  of  police 
at  the  review  and  get  very  good  places,  though  they  had 
no  tickets.  They  saw  the  president  of  the  republic  and 
the  ministers,  the  presentation  of  the  colors  and  decora 
tions;  they  vibrated  to  the  strains  of  the  "  Marseillaise " 
and  "Sambre  et  Meuse,"  and  cheered  the  dirigible  balloons. 
Every  one  made  room  for  them.  They  found  the  way  to 
the  heart  of  France. 

At  my  house  at  Creans  they  were  soon  playing  tennis, 
swimming  and  canoeing  exactly  as  if  they  were  at  home. 
Every  one  was  so  delighted  with  them  that  we  would  not 
hear  of  their  going.  More  than  this :  as  I  had  to  attend 
a  public  banquet  in  a  neighboring  village,  they  went  with 
me,  and,  despite  their  ignorance  of  French,  their  mere 


WOMAN  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES  59 

individuality  made  them  so  popular  that  one  of  them  had 
to  make  a  speech  which  I  translated,  proposing  the  two 
sister  republics:  Washington  and  Lafayette.  It  was  a 
delightful  day  for  all,  and  afforded  self-evident  proof  that 
products  of  an  American  education  are  quite  suitable  for 
export. 

I  can  say  as  much  for  a  Pittsburgh  girl  who  accompanied 
me  and  my  children  on  a  series  of  visits  we  made  by 
automobile  to  several  communes  in  my  department. 
She  indeed  spoke  French,  but  her  graciousness  and  sim 
plicity  were  such  that  she  was  persona  grata  with 
every  one,  peasants  and  workmen  alike.  She  became  so 
popular  that  the  village  bandsmen  came  and  formed  in  a 
circle  around  her  to  play  her  an  "aubade,"  or  morning 
serenade,  and  asked  her  for  prints  of  the  photographs  she 
had  taken  of  the  fete. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  young  Americans  who  make 
up  their  minds  to  travel  in  Europe  belong  to  the  most 
sociable  kind.  They  are  even  beginning  to  regret  their 
ignorance  —  hitherto  quite  natural  —  of  foreign  languages. 
They  are  nevertheless  in  a  position  to  see  that  their  in 
dependent  style  of  education  does  not  cut  them  off  from 
other  people,  but  rather  brings  them  into  closer  communion. 
It  is  the  same  with  many  other  points  of  difference,  which, 
to  the  superficial  observer,  might  be  expected  to  act  as  so 
many  causes  of  incompatibility,  instead  of  being,  as  they 
are  in  reality,  connecting  links  or  sources  of  mutual 
influence  and  of  friendship  between  the  New  World  and 
the  Old,  and  especially  France. 


2.  An  Election  Campaign.    For  or  against  Women 

The  objection  may  be  raised  that  I  am  too  much  pre 
possessed  in  favor  of  the  enviable  progress  achieved  in 
the  United  States,  but  the  fact  is  that,  in  that  country,  I 


60  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

have  been  steeping  myself  in  simplicity.  Especially  in 
the  West,  or  rather  the  Far  West,  I  have  seen  the  down 
fall  of  our  old  prejudices  one  after  another,  and  the  victory 
of  natural  conceptions  over  Old  World  traditions  which 
would  be  senseless  in  the  new  hemisphere.  I  do  not  see 
why  I  should  not  admit  that  my  travels  have  given  me  a 
second  education.  I  could  not  help  keeping  my  eyes  and 
ears  open.  My  travels,  and  in  fact  my  life,  have  been 
one  long  road  to  Damascus.  I  have  been  literally  taken 
by  storm  and  invaded  by  problems  which  prudence  or 
routine  would  have  preferred  to  see  relegated  to  the  back 
ground.  Against  such  assaults  I  struggled  in  vain.  What 
was  to  be  done,  for  instance,  against  a  sudden  and  simul 
taneous  attack  by  all  the  women  in  California?  I  was 
obliged  to  decide,  all  at  once,  whether  I  was  on  their  side 
or  hostile  to  them.  What  should  I  have  said  if  any  one 
had  told  me  before  I  left  France  that  I,  a  diplomatist, 
would  not  only  carry  on  but  actually  open  an  electoral 
campaign  in  favor  of  votes  for  women  at  San  Francisco? 
And  yet  that  is  what  happened.  I  did  not  yield  without 
resistance.  I  spoke  my  mind  very  freely.  I  was  con 
tradicted  and  questioned  at  several  large  meetings.  I 
did  not  attempt  to  conceal  that  a  conflict  was  going  on 
between  my  natural  sentiments  and  those  created  in  me 
by  my  European  education.  This  conflict  lasted  through 
out  the  week  I  spent  in  California,  without  a  moment's 
rest.  Long-distance  telephone  calls,  daily  and  nightly 
telegrams,  messages,  letters,  visits  and  all  kinds  of  efforts 
were  used  to  induce  me  to  intervene. 

In  principle  I  had  already  given  hostages  to  the  cause, 
and  this  was  known.  The  newspapers  in  many  cities  of 
the  United  States  had  published  translations  of  an  address 
I  delivered  in  Paris  on  "Women  and  the  Cause  of  Peace." 1 

1  See  International  Conciliation,  Pamphlet  No.  40,  March,  1911.  407 
W.  117,  New  York  City. 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES  6 1 

I  have  presided  over  a  great  number  of  the  meetings 
of  their  national  and  international  association.  All 
efforts  on  behalf  of  the  weak  and  all  movements  towards 
emancipation,  assistance  and  social  improvement  belong 
to  the  great  primordial  struggle  against  violence.  No  one 
can  advance  the  progress  of  the  human  race  and  at  the 
same  time  contribute  to  enslaving  and  destroying  it.  It  is 
all  part  of  one  whole.  One  must  be  for  or  against  might, 
for  or  against  right.  Every  feminist  is  inevitably  a  pacifist, 
and  vice  versa;  and  this  is  especially  true  in  the  United 
States  and  other  new  countries.  The  newer  the  com 
munity,  the  higher  the  position  given  to  women  and  chil 
dren.  Woman's  status  has  improved  with  the  march  of 
civilization  and  the  westward  progress  of  the  sun,  and 
it  has  therefore  reached  its  maximum  of  progress  in  the 
Far  West  of  America,  on  the  shore  of  the  Pacific.  This 
was  the  substance  of  the  proposition  I  had  put  forward, 
and  I  could  not  refuse  to  uphold  it  at  San  Francisco,  but 
I  immediately  perceived  that  it  was  too  moderate.  "You 
are  too  easy  to  please,"  the  American  women  told  me; 
and  they  even  added,  "We  decline  your  certificate  of 
felicity."  This  hard  knock  was  administered  to  me  by 
the  woman  president  of  one  of  the  numerous  meetings 
I  was  invited  to  attend.  I  responded  frankly,  being 
fortunately  accustomed  to  public  meetings,  by  saying : 
"You  are  justified  in  asking  for  more,  from  your  electoral 
point  of  view,  but  I  am  also  justified  in  congratulating 
you,  whether  you  like  it  or  not,  from  my  general  point  of 
view.  You  are  entitled  to  complain;  but,  ladies,  you  are 
fortunate,  free  and  highly  favored.  I  am  sorry  to  have 
told  you  so  at  an  inopportune  moment,  but  you  are  super 
latively  well  off  in  comparison  with  the  women  of  other 
countries.  By  all  means  agitate  for  further  progress,  so 
that  those  other  women  may  profit  by  it.  They  have 
much  more  need  of  it  than  you  have."  I  then  went  on  to 


62  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

give  some  of  my  experiences  as  a  traveler  and  to  describe 
the  life  of  women  in  eastern  and  southern  Europe.  Al 
though  all  audiences  like  to  be  opposed,  this  one  at  first 
appeared  disinclined  to  listen  to  my  arguments.  I  had 
invited  contradiction,  and  I  obtained  all  I  wanted. 

The  Paris  Boulevards 

One  of  the  ladies  present  observed,  somewhat  acidly, 
that  I  must  have  brought  my  prejudices  with  me  from 
France,  considering  that  a  French  mother  has  not  enough 
confidence  in  her  daughter  to  let  her  go  out  alone  in  Paris. 
To  this  I  replied  by  deliberately  taking  the  part  of  the 
French  mother,  and  adding  that  no  mother  or  real  friend 
of  an  American  girl  would  let  her  go  out  alone  in  the  even 
ing  on  our  boulevards,  not  on  account  of  bad  Frenchmen, 
but  of  the  cosmopolitan  crowds  who  go  there  to  spend 
their  money. 

Miserable  Young  Girls 

After  this,  I  drew  an  only  too  faithful  picture  of  the 
manner  in  which  girls  are  exploited  in  all  countries.  I 
pointed  out  that  they  are  defenseless,  not  only  against  law, 
but  against  custom,  which  urgently  calls  for  alteration. 
In  this  way  harmony  was  restored  between  my  audience 
and  myself,  to  such  an  extent  that  an  old  workman,  who 
only  knew  me  by  the  title  of  "  Baron,"  lavishly  used  by 
the  American  newspapers  in  referring  to  me,  shouted  out : 

"That's  good !    I  like  to  see  an  aristocrat  who's  human ! " 

The  Three  Husbands 

Although  the  ice  was  thus  broken,  my  difficulties  merely 
took  another  form  just  as  the  debate  assumed  a  different 
tone.  I  mention  it  because  it  took  place  publicly  and  was 
reported  at  the  time.  One  of  the  ladies  took  the  floor 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES  63 

and  said :  "  You  must  not  judge  us  by  appearances.  The 
Frenchwoman  is  perhaps  not  so  free  as  we  are,  but  in 
reality  she  is  happier."  Why?  " Because  she  is  more 
esteemed  by  her  husband.  Our  husbands  and  fathers 
give  us  all  we  can  wish  for,  except  their  confidence.  A 
French  husband  treats  his  wife  as  a  friend  and  helper; 
an  American  husband  keeps  his  wife  at  a  distance  from 
his  life.  No  doubt  you  know  what  we  say  here  about  a 
French  couple  and  how  we  distinguish  it  from  others.  The 
English  husband  goes  in  front  of  his  wife,  the  American 
wife  goes  in  front  of  her  husband,  and  the  French  husband 
and  wife  go  side  by  side." 

It  was  a  rather  awkward  novelty  for  me  to  have  to  dis 
cuss  such  questions  at  a  public  meeting.  I  confined  my 
self  to  remarking  that  I  knew  a  great  many  very  united 
couples  in  America,  and  that,  if  there  was  a  lack  of  confidence 
among  others,  it  could  not  be  made  up  for  by  any  law. 
Such  confidence,  in  fact,  must  be  earned.  To  illustrate 
my  meaning,  I  could  find  nothing  better  than  to  describe 
the  inside  of  a  French  household  —  not  the  kind  in  which 
the  wife  copies  her  neighbor,  who  copies  an  Englishwoman 
who  copies  a  fashion  paper,  but  just  one  of  those  plain  and 
unpretentious  families  of  which  I  know  thousands  in  France. 

3.    The  French  Woman.    A  French  Wife 

Let  us,  I  said,  in  substance,  avoid  generalizations ;  there 
are  ill-assorted  couples  everywhere,  both  in  France  and  in 
America,  but  I  am  quite  willing,  ladies,  to  admit  that  the 
Frenchwoman  does  not  complain,  does  not  ask  for  a  vote, 
and  seems  more  satisfied  with  her  lot  than  you  are.  A 
French  family,  especially  of  the  kind  that  exists  in  circles 
unknown  to  travelers,  is  the  ideal  form  of  association 
between  man  and  woman,  and  is  a  triumph  for  the  latter, 
because  it  is  her  work.  But  it  is  a  work  requiring  great 


64  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

and  inherited  patience.     It  is  a  conquest  of  the  husband's 
authority  —  a  conquest  for  which  the  way  is  paved  by  the 
wife's  education,  spirit  of  continuity  and  abnegation.     The 
masterpiece  of  the  whole  achievement  is  that  the  marital 
authority  remains  intact,  but  it  is  never  exercised  without  a 
check.     The  wife  respects  it,  and  supports  it  whenever  nec 
essary,  but  never  ceases  to  enlighten  it  with  maternal  care. 
Many  a  time  have  I  stopped  to  study  one  of  these  model 
families,  in  my  native  department,  the  Sarthe,  whenever 
I  happened  to  find  one  on  my  path,  in  some  small  town 
or  on  a  farm.    Here  indeed  does  the  wife  reign,  or  rather 
the  husband  reigns  while  the  wife  watches.     The  man 
gives   the   orders   but   the   woman   suggests   them.     She 
retires  into  the  background  and  devotes  herself  to  the 
humble  needs  of  the  household.     The  constantly  recurring 
duties  which  are  not  worth  mentioning  individually,  but 
are  indispensable  items  in  the  daily  life  of  the  household, 
are  her  care.     She  discharges  them  unawares,  as  if  by  the 
operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost.      The  husband  —  a  cattle 
dealer,  let  us  say  —  goes  off  in  his  cart  before  daybreak 
to  see  farmers  or  make  purchases  at  a  fair.     His  wife,  up 
before  him,  lights  the  fire  and  prepares  breakfast  without 
any  fuss.     She  rouses  the  stableman  or  herself  gives  the 
horse  his  oats.     She  brushes  her  husband's  clothes  and 
shoes  and,  if  need  be,  helps  him  to  harness  the  horse.    As 
soon  as  he  has  gone,  she  tidies  the  bedroom,  the  kitchen 
and  the  house  in  general  and  sees  to  the  farmyard,  the 
poultry  yard,  the  cowhouse  and  the  stable.     She  dresses 
the  children,  gives  them  their  breakfast  and  sends  them 
off  to  school.     She  mends,  washes  and  irons  the  linen, 
not  without  conversation,  for  she  is  by  no  means  of  a  grumpy 
disposition,  and  her  husband  will  not  be  averse  to  hearing 
the  village  news  when  he  comes  home.     Between  whiles 
she  kills  a  chicken  or  duck,  plucks  it  and  trusses  it  for  next 
Sunday's  dinner.     She  kneads  the  bread,  heats  the  oven, 


WOMAN  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES  65 

prepares  a  cake  or  gives  her  orders  to  the  baker.  She 
makes  her  purchases  from  the  grocer  and  butcher.  She 
attends  to  the  cellar,  too,  and  she  it  is  who  goes  down  to 
fetch  the  bottle  of  good  white  wine  that  the  master  wants 
to  open  for  the  benefit  of  a  customer  or  of  the  friend  whom 
he  brings  home.  She  it  is,  clean,  calm  and  smiling,  who 
receives  us  and  entertains  us  when  I  come  with  my  friends. 
She  attends  to  everything,  without  appearing  to  do  so. 
She  keeps  the  accounts,  too,  and  the  most  extraordinary 
part  of  it  is  that  some  of  these  wives,  to  my  knowledge, 
can  hardly  read ;  but  they  are  never  a  centime  out  when 
it  comes  to  calculating  what  she  has  to  take  from  Peter 
and  give  to  Paul,  advance  to  Louis  and  deduct  from 
Charles's  account  and  so  on. 

It  often  happens  that  when  the  husband  comes  back 
from  market,  he  is  not  in  a  very  good  temper,  and  then,  of 
course,  his  wife  has  to  bear  the  brunt.  "It's  your  fault," 
he  will  tell  her;  "you  forgot  this,  you  told  me  that,  your 
idea  was  all  wrong,  and  so  on!"  The  wife  responds  in 
her  own  way  and  according  to  circumstances.  If  there 
are  any  witnesses,  she  holds  her  tongue.  She  is  politic, 
like  Louis  XI,  and  dissimulates,  or  else  she  makes  jokes 
and  takes  nothing  to  heart.  She  has  heard  worse  things, 
and  so  have  her  mother  and  her  grandmother  before  her ! 
She  laughs  heartily  or  else  she  furtively  wipes  away  a  tear. 
It  depends  on  her  temperament  or  the  circumstances.  Some 
times  her  husband  has  had  hard  work  to  induce  a  customer 
to  make  up  his  mind,  and  has  had  to  drink  a  glass  or  two 
of  wine,  or  perhaps  a  glass  too  many.  She  sizes  up  the 
situation  at  a  glance,  says  nothing  and  waits  till  next  day ; 
or,  if  she  is  alone,  she  gives  her  husband  a  piece  of  her 
mind,  in  which  case  there  is  no  knowing  what  takes  place. 
In  any  event,  next  day  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  her 
being  mistress  in  her  own  house,  as  she  was  before,  and 
her  husband,  though  he  may  growl  and  grumble,  internally 


66  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

admits  that  she  is  right.  She  is  his  adviser,  his  friend  and 
his  better  half.  What  would  be  the  use  of  trying  to  sub 
stitute  a  political  right  for  the  conjugal  authority  thus 
exercised  by  the  Frenchwoman?  Is  it  surprising  that  she 
does  not  ask  for  legislation? 

In  the  same  way,  the  right  to  vote  is  never  claimed  so 
much  by  the  favored  few  as  by  the  others.  For  them  is 
it  required,  and  for  this  reason  is  it  sacred.  If  we  contrast 
the  satisfied  condition  of  the  happy  wife  with  the  sufferings 
of  the  wretched  women  who  are  victimized  by  the  present 
condition  of  affairs,  the  point  of  view  alters,  and  I  have 
never  had  the  heart  to  discourage  the  American  women 
who  plead  the  cause  of  their  kind. 

4.    Votes  for  Women.     The  Suffragettes.     Their  Dewtedness 
and  Services  during  the  War 

My  Liberal  friends  in  England  have,  in  my  opinion, 
committed  a  very  great  mistake  in  opposing  the  suffragettes, 
whatever  may  have  been  the  violence  against  which  they 
have  often  had  to  defend  themselves.  Departing,  in  an 
inexplicable  manner,  from  all  traditions  of  English  public 
life,  they  have  refused  to  concede  the  right  of  women  to 
discuss  their  claims,  and  have  treated  these  claims  with 
disdain.  If  they  had  given  them  only  a  small  part  of  the 
consideration  lavished,  by  all  parties  in  all  countries,  on 
the  least  respectable  sections  of  the  electorate,  they  would 
have  placed  themselves  in  the  most  favorable  position  and 
would  not  have  committed  such  a  monstrosity  as  to  put 
woman  —  in  England,  of  all  countries  !  —  in  what  may 
be  called  the  lower  scale  of  humanity  and  drive  her  to 
the  excesses  which  have  been  too  often  committed.1 

1  Let  us  not  fail  to  note  as  one  more  argument  in  favor  of  votes  for  women, 
the  patriotic  devotion,  the  public  spirit  of  which  they  are  giving  evidence 
during  the  European  war  of  1914-15.  The  women  had  already  shown 
what  immense  service  they  could  perform  in  the  vast  domain  of  municipal 


WOMAN  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES  67 

No  party  in  the  United  States  has  perpetrated  such  a 
blunder  as  that  of  the  Liberals  in  England.  Even  President 
Roosevelt,  who  believes  in  vigorous  methods,  has  not  pro 
nounced  against  feminism.  He,  at  first,  avoided  com 
mitting  himself  and  took  refuge  in  a  sympathy  which 
he  has  himself  described  as  "  lukewarm."  He  became 
much  more  decided  later  on.  Whether  their  own  sym 
pathy  be  ardent  or  tepid,  the  public  authorities  cannot 
elude  the  question  of  votes  for  women  much  longer.  It 
is  an  integral  part  of  a  great  social,  national  and  universal 

administration,  in  charities,  in  teaching,  in  hygiene,  the  improvement  of 
morals,  justice,  etc.  We  shall  many  times  bear  such  testimony  in  the 
course  of  this  book,  but  one  domain  had  always,  so  it  seemed,  been  closed 
to  them,  that  of  war.  Jeanne  d'Arc,  it  had  seemed,  was  to  remain  almost 
the  single  exception  in  history.  The  English  suffragettes  have  recently 
responded  most  nobly  to  this  last  appeal.  Although  following  pacific 
lines,  they  have  understood  that  it  was  their  duty  to  combat,  in  accordance 
with  their  means  and  their  strength,  for  the  rights  of  the  most  feeble,  and 
for  peace,  against  the  aggression  of  German  militarism.  They  did  not 
stop  with  exhortations  to  their  sons,  brothers,  husbands  and  fiance's  to  take 
arms.  They  have  themselves  enlisted  and  are  actively  participating  in 
auxiliary  service  of  the  army,  the  post  office,  the  telephone,  telegraph;  in 
administration,  acting  as  interpreters,  as  members  of  Boards  of  Health, 
etc.  None  can  any  longer  find  anything  ridiculous  about  their  activities, 
now  that  these  will  leave  free  thousands  of  soldiers  and  officers  to  go  to  the 
front,  while  women  will  take  their  places  in  the  offices  or  even  on  the  firing 
line.  Suffragettes  at  war  !  yet  surrounded  by  the  respect  and  receiving  the 
gratitude  of  a  nation.  Who  could  have  predicted  this  miracle?  —  but  it  is 
nevertheless  quite  natural.  Here  in  France  we  have  seen  socialists  and  anti- 
militarists  sacrificing  everything  without  hesitation  for  the  defense  of  the 
country  and  of  peace.  This  war  must  be  furnishing  to  the  women  of  all 
countries  —  not  excluding  those  of  Germany  —  an  opportunity  to  justify 
their  right  in  doing  duty  like  the  men.  They  have  been  everywhere  collabo 
rators,  indispensable  in  the  service  of  health.  Many  admirable  women  have 
hastened  to  Europe,  both  from  America  and  from  Japan.  They  were  not 
satisfied  to  bring  over  here  mere  material  assistance,  however  valuable,  in 
money  or  in  supplies.  They  are  spending  that  which  is  still  more  precious, 
their  very  selves.  One  must  see  them  on  the  field  of  battle  as  intrepid  as 
the  bravest  soldiers;  one  must  see  them  in  the  hospitals  and  in  the  model 
ambulances  which  they  have  prepared  and  the  service  of  which  they  direct. 
This  war  must  be  adding  an  irresistible  force  to  the  propaganda  of  women 
for  righteousness  and  for  peace.  (March,  1915.) 


68  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

problem,  which  has  been  laid  before  the  United  States 
and  is  being  solved  in  sections,  by  partial  successes  which 
will  end  in  a  general  triumph.  That  this  would  be  the 
case  was  my  impression  after  my  first  journeys  in  America, 
and  it  was  confirmed  after  my  visits  to  the  Scandinavian 
countries,  where  ideas  germinate  earlier  than  elsewhere ; 
but  I  now  regard  it  as  a  certainty.  My  experiences  at 
San  Francisco  were  merely  a  prelude  to  the  initiation  that 
awaited  me  later  on,  in  state  after  state,  when  I  was  able 
to  estimate  what  had  been  attempted  and  accomplished 
by  women  in  the  United  States.  It  is  not  that  the  American 
woman  is  superior  to  others,  but  she  is  freer.  She  is  as 
brave  as  others,  but  her  bravery  shows  itself  in  public, 
for  the  good  of  the  cause,  while  the  European  woman, 
who  is  more  resigned,  is  brave  only  in  suffering. 

The  Necessary  Struggle 

People  laugh  at  the  woman  who  claims  the  right  to  vote. 
She  is  ridiculed,  just  as  ridicule  has  been  heaped  upon 
advocates  of  the  noblest  causes,  at  all  forerunners,  inventors 
and  pioneers,  but  in  the  long  run  she  will  be  respected  in 
proportion  to  the  extent  to  which  people  feel  ashamed  of 
having  made  fun  of  her.  I  have  heard  the  most  frivolous 
society  women  admire  the  grandeur  of  an  immense  pro 
cession  that  went  past  their  windows  in  New  York.  It  was 
a  women's  demonstration,  carried  out  on  a  winter  day, 
amid  rain  and  mud.  Thousands  and  thousands  of  women, 
of  all  ages,  all  classes  and  all  kinds,  marched  past,  without 
distinction  of  place,  forgetful  of  the  times  in  which  they 
lived,  of  their  inequalities  of  station,  of  their  joys  and 
sorrows,  their  minds  fixed  upon  a  common  purpose  —  the 
emancipation  of  their  sex  and  the  right  to  act,  compete, 
protest  and  vote  in  public  as  well  as  in  private.  There 
were  tears  in  the  eyes  of  the  women  who  described  this 


WOMAN  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES  69 

scene  to  me.  Perhaps  it  was  an  awakening  for  them. 
They  admired  the  courage  that  must  have  been  necessary 
for  the  philanthropic  women  whom  they  saw  at  the  head 
of  the  procession  —  women  who  exposed  themselves  not 
only  to  ridicule  from  the  spectators,  but  to  contact  with 
unfortunates  of  the  lowest  type,  and  also  with  the  female 
cranks  who  spoil  the  best  causes  by  their  excessive  zeal. 
I  discussed  the  matter  with  mothers  whose  families  I 
knew  to  be  united  and  to  enjoy  general  esteem.  I  explained 
my  doubts,  fears  and  prejudices,  without  exciting  any  sur 
prise,  and  their  reply  was : 

"We  shall  win  because  we  must  win!  You  have  wit 
nessed  the  fight  for  the  parliamentary  vote  in  California. 
That  was  only  a  single  stage  of  the  struggle.  We  have 
been  successful  in  many  other  very  important  preliminary 
attacks.  In  the  state  of  Kansas,  for  instance,  women 
take  part  in  all  municipal  elections,  both  as  electors  and 
candidates,  and  every  one,  especially  the  taxpayer,  is 
delighted  with  this  moralizing  progress.  A  great  many 
women  are  at  the  head  of  municipalities  and  are  not  only 
excellent  mothers  but  excellent  mayors. 

"In  nearly  half  the  United  States  we  have  the  education 
vote;  that  is  to  say,  the  mothers  as  well  as  the  fathers 
elect  the  school  officials,  the  members  of  the  library  com 
mittees,  etc.,  and  nobody  complains;  quite  the  reverse. 
In  some  states  a  woman,  and  even  a  young  one,  has  been 
elected  to  the  post  of  school  superintendent.  We  have 
obtained  the  right  to  vote  for  or  against  certain  kinds  of 
expenditure  and  public  works,  so  as  to  make  sure  that  the 
outlay  will  be  really  useful  and  not  for  the  sole  benefit  of 
the  contractors  and  their  friends. 

"  Moreover,  the  progress  of  our  cause  should  not  be  judged 
solely  by  these  results,  brilliant  as  they  are.  Our  means  of 
action,  our  resources,  our  numbers,  our  organization  and 
the  splendid  men  and  women  who  support  us  and  lead  us 


70  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

must  be  taken  into  account.     Our  history  also  should  not 
be  ignored. 

The  Rights  of  the  Man.     The  Woman  and  the  Child 
Forgotten 

"Our  objection  to  the  narrow  interpretation  of  the 
Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man  is  of  no  recent  date. 
We  claim  that  it  should  be  applied,  not  merely  in  the 
letter,  but  in  the  purely  humane  spirit  in  which  it  is  con 
ceived,  both  to  women  and  children.  We  tried  our  strength 
in  the  negro  emancipation  question.  Our  success  proved 
our  legal  inferiority  to  be  a  paradox  that  could  not  be 
entertained.  Our  assistance  was  accepted,  but  when 
the  fight  was  over,  the  right  to  vote  was  denied  us.  Slaves 
were  freed  but  women  were  not.  We  were  put  in  the 
same  class  with  criminals  and  madmen.  We  were  obliged 
to  go  about  with  the  placards  you  have  seen :  '  Criminals, 
the  insane  and  women  do  not  vote.' 

"We  have  succeeded  admirably  in  municipal  affairs 
(not  to  mention  the  active  part  played  by  women  in  cham 
bers  of  commerce  and  agriculture),  and  why,  and  by  what 
right,  should  we  stop  there? 

"If  you  admit  that  the  interest  of  all  the  inhabitants 
of  a  city  is  to  unite  in  preventing,  for  instance,  the  adul 
teration  of  milk,  sugar  and  other  foods  on  which  our 
children  are  fed,  how  are  you  to  hinder  us  when  we  are 
organized,  as  we  soon  shall  be,  from  stopping  the  moral 
adulteration  of  education  and  national  truth?  How  will 
you  prevent  us  from  uniting  against  the  lies,  abuses  and 
corruption  that  men  support  or  encourage  because  of  profit 
to  themselves  or  because  they  are  afraid  to  denounce 
them?  We  are  numerous,  and  we  constitute  a  force  that 
has  been  often  employed.  It  is  not  enough  for  us  to  exer 
cise  influence ;  we  must  resort  to  direct  action. 


WOMAN  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES  fl 

"We  have  held  aloof  too  long  through  timidity  and 
because  we  were  convinced  of  our  own  incapacity  and  of 
your  alleged  superiority  in  the  domain  of  public  affairs. 
We  have  now  been  aroused  from  this  over-long  dream, 
devoid  of  pride  and  ambition,  by  realities  and  facts.  In 
man's  own  interest,  it  is  time  to  deprive  him  of  his  monopoly 
of  management,  which  is  quite  as  bad  for  him  as  it  is  for 
us  and  for  civilization. 


The  Good  Man  is  Shy 

"  The  best  men  are  really  more  timid  than  women.  They 
are  afraid  of  the  yellow  newspapers,  of  scandal,  of  black 
mail,  of  innovations  and  of  truth,  and  finally  their  weakness 
spells  predominance  for  gangs  of  the  worst  kind.  The 
Press,  politicians  and  business  men  would  end  by  dominat 
ing  all  honest  people  if  it  were  not  for  us.  Because  we  do 
not  want  to  come  out  of  our  homes,  are  we  to  abandon 
them  to  the  very  men  who  would  destroy  them  ?  Never ! 
It  was  for  love  of  our  home,  our  children,  our  families,  our 
country,  of  liberty  and  of  justice  that  we  entered  the  fight, 
and  in  their  cause  we  shall  triumph. 

"But  this  triumph  can  only  come  through  our  obtaining 
the  right  to  vote,  and  this  will  take  a  great  deal  less  time 
than  converting  politicians.  Once  at  the  head  of  the  polls, 
we  shall  compel  the  men  to  do,  both  for  the  country  and 
the  city,  what  they  have  hitherto  failed  to  do. 

"As  for  our  homes,  you  need  be  under  no  uneasiness. 
They  will  be  all  the  better  protected  when  we  can  guard 
them  both  outside  and  inside.  We  have  stayed  indoors 
so  long,  and  so  many  things  have  been  taken  from  us,  that 
we  must  needs  go  out  to  retake  them.  Our  position  as 
wives  and  mothers  is  threatened  if  it  carries  with  it  no 
right  of  control,  and  this  right  of  control  is  nothing  without 
our  right  of  interference." 


72  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

To  sum  up,  the  movement  in  favor  of  votes  for  women 
is  a  protest  of  outraged  morality  against  the  masculine 
infringements  of  politics  on  private  life,  conscience  and 
individual  liberty.  This  protest,  which  is  sometimes 
negative,  is  directed  with  incredible  violence  against  drink, 
for  instance,  as  we  shall  see  later  on  At  other  times  it 
takes  a  positive  form  on  behalf  of  the  public  health,  open 
spaces,  children's  sports  and  education,  the  regulation  of 
labor  and  the  protection  of  childhood.  It  can  no  longer 
be  treated  with  contempt.  Governments  must  take  it 
into  account,  even  in  Europe.  I  certainly  did  not  expect 
to  take  part  in  the  campaign  carried  on  by  the  ladies  of 
San  Francisco.  I  am  delighted  to  bear  my  share  of  re 
sponsibility  for  their  triumph  :  for,  as  every  one  knows,  they 
eventually  won. 

Triumph  of  the  Women 

They  now  have  the  right  to  elect  and  be  elected  at  the 
next  parliamentary  election  in  the  state  of  California. 
There  are  now  eleven  states  which  have  become  feminist 
as  the  result  of  constitutional  changes  adopted  by  the 
electorate.  A  surprise  vote  temporarily  deprived  the 
state  of  Washington  of  this  new  right,  but  it  was  soon 
regained.  Even  New  York  state  itself  is  perceptibly 
wavering.  In  1912,  six  states  —  California,  Utah,  Wyo 
ming,  Idaho,  Colorado  and  Washington  —  had  been  won 
over  to  the  principle  of  votes  for  women ;  the  last  five 
being  among  the  least  populous  states  in  the  Union.  The 
conquest  of  California,  whose  population  exceeded  that 
of  all  the  others  put  together,  resulted,  in  the  following 
year,  in  the  conversion  of  five  other  states, — Montana, 
Kansas,  Arizona,  Oregon  and  Michigan,  —  making  eleven 
in  all,  or  more  than  a  fifth  of  the  whole  country.1 

*To  these  eleven  states  and  the  territory  already  conquered  by  the 
women  at  the  end  of  1913,  in  order  to  be  exact,  one  must  add  twelve  statec 


WOMAN  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES  73 

Seaports  and  Pleasure  Cities 

Here  is  another  remarkable  fact.  The  "gay"  cities, 
and  especially  the  large  seaports,  are,  of  course,  hostile  to 
any  reform  directed  towards  protection  of  women.  Such 
dreams  are  not  for  the  patrons  of  bars,  saloons  and  low 
houses.  San  Francisco  consequently  voted  dead  against 
the  change,  and  so  large  was  the  plurality  that,  on  the 
night  of  the  election,  the  defeat  of  the  cause  seemed  certain 
and  was  announced  beforehand  in  telegrams  sent  all  over 
the  country.  It  was  made  the  subject  of  ironical  com 
ments  in  next  morning's  newspapers,  but  on  the  following 
day  the  returns  from  the  rural  constituencies  outweighed 
those  of  the  capital  and  the  rout  became  a  victory.  The 
moral  will  not  be  lost  sight  of  :  the  communities  in  which 
woman  is  submerged  are  hostile  to  her  uplifting,  but  the 
country  districts,  where  she  is  mistress  of  the  farm  or 
household,  are  in  her  favor. 

I  have  set  down  faithfully  how  I  took  part,  all  unpre 
pared,  in  this  great  movement.  Did  I  thereby  depart 
from  my  path?  Certainly  not;  I  widened  it.  I  met 
with  new  assistance  and  did  not  neglect  it.  Such  numerous 
protests  carry  weight,  and  such  willing  helpers  end  by 
forming  a  powerful  union  of  common  interests  which  will 

in  which  universal  suffrage  has  been  voted  by  both  chambers  of  the  legis 
latures,  awaiting  only  constitutional  ratification.  Seven  states  have  granted 
the  right  to  vote  on  school  matters  alone,  three  have  granted  "school  and 
taxpaying  suffrage";  two  states  have  granted  only  "taxpaying  suffrage." 
Fifteen  states  in  1913  refused  the  suffrage,  but  since  then  there  has  been 
further  progress.  See  among  the  numerous  suffrage  publications  in  the 
United  States  the  "Women's  Journal  and  Suffrage  News"  of  Boston,  founded 
by  Lucy  Stone  and  Henry  B.  Blackwell,  a  weekly  journal  which  has  already 
been  published  forty-seven  years. 

The  example  of  the  United  States  has  induced  rapid  changes  in  the  entire 
world,  beginning  with  the  great  colonies  of  England  and  extending  even  to 
France.  See  the  very  interesting  reports  made  by  M.  Ferdinand  Buisson, 
Deputy  to  the  French  Parliament,  and  especially  that  of  July  29,  1913. 
(March,  1915.) 


74  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

be  bound  together  by  the  force  of  circumstances.  Gov 
ernments  began  by  denying  the  strength  of  public  opinion 
and  then  braved  it.  They  are  now  making  up  their  minds 
to  recognize  it  whenever  it  is  awakened  and  makes  its 
voice  heard.  They  had  better  take  care.  Under  the 
system  of  armed  peace  they  have  created  an  accumulation 
of  dissatisfaction  against  themselves.  It  is  coming  from 
men  of  intellect,  from  the  working  classes  and  from  a 
large  section  of  business  men.  If  the  governments  add 
women  to  the  list,  they  will  make  themselves  very  un 
popular  indeed. 

Women  have  supported  me,  and  I  now  support  them. 
Being  the  weaker  sex,  they  are  even  more  interested  than 
men  in  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  the  organization  of 
justice.  Whenever  the  fishers  in  troubled  waters  are 
trying  to  stir  up  war  or  panic,  the  influence  of  women  ought 
to  turn  the  scale.  This  struck  me  with  especial  force  at 
San  Francisco,  where  the  wonderful  progress  of  a  rich 
country  only  too  often  runs  the  risk  of  being  spoiled  by  the 
schemes  of  a  handful  of  adventurers,  and  especially  by  the 
threat  of  a  so-called  " inevitable"  war  between  the  United 
States  and  Japan,  the  inanity  of  which  I  shall  discuss  in 
another  chapter.  In  case  of  a  danger  really  national,  on 
the  contrary,  as  I  have  said  above,  the  women  are  the 
first  to  set  an  example  of  heroism  and  to  contribute  to  the 
defense  of  the  country. 


CHAPTER  V 

FROM  SEATTLE   TO   SALT  LAKE   CITY 

A  NEW  CITY.  Seattle.  The  moving  houses.  The  Seattle 
spirit.  The  "single  tax."  Henry  George.  The  churches. — 
2.  THE  SEATTLE  EXHIBITION.  Past  and  future.  Far  West  to  Far 
East.  From  the  Arctic  circles  to  the  Tropics.  —  3.  SEATTLE'S  AM 
BITION.  The  railways.  New  ideals;  the  French  revolution. 
The  products  follow  the  ideas.  Bad  management ;  deforestation ; 
American  waste.  American  organization.  The  states  of  Wash 
ington  and  Oregon.  Culture  and  gathering  of  the  apples.  If 
only  France  knew !  —  4.  PORTLAND.  The  Sacramento.  The  gold 
seekers.  The  Rose  city.  The  automatic  telephone.  The  Colum 
bia  River.  The  gold.  The  progress  of  agriculture.  —  5.  DRY 
FARMING.  The  Mormons.  Illegal  but  existing  polygamy. 


i.    A  New  City.     Seattle 

I  AM  now  at  the  most  northerly  point  of  my  journey  in 
the  West.  As  every  one  knows,  Seattle  —  which  dates 
from  yesterday,  or,  to  be  exact,  from  sixty  years  ago  —  is 
already  a  very  large  city  laid  out  on  a  vast  scale  like  the 
others,  and  even  more  so.  The  population,  about  a  thou 
sand  in  1870,  will  soon  total  300,000.  Here  again  the 
Americans  have  prepared  for  the  future  on  spacious  lines. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  Nature  seems  to  have  decided 
the  proportions  of  these  big  towns.  The  Greek  and 
Roman  metropolitan  cities  are  large  in  proportion  to  their 
surroundings,  and  this  harmony  constitutes  their  beauty; 
American  cities  of  the  twentieth  century  cannot  be  on  these 
lines.  They  are  gigantic,  like  the  country,  the  mountains, 
the  trees,  the  gulfs,  the  rivers.  It  is  surprising  that  the  men 
themselves  are  not  bigger. 

75 


76  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

The  celebrated  Douglas  fir  trees,  which  are  beginning  to 
yield  to  the  progress  of  civilization,  are  several  yards  in 
diameter  and  are  several  thousand  years  old  (6500  years, 
it  is  said).  The  pillars  of  a  temple,  built  for  the  forestry  ex 
hibition  at  the  Seattle  Exposition,  and  still  standing,  were 
made  out  of  enormous  tree  trunks,  all  identical  and  each  in 
a  single  piece,  larger  than  any  monolith  or  stone  obelisk. 

From  San  Francisco  to  Portland,  and  from  Portland  to 
Alaska  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  everything  is  big; 
how  could  Seattle  be  small  ?  Such  an  enterprise  could  not 
have  been  carried  out  without  a  great  amount  of  money 
and  a  still  greater  amount  of  confidence  and  assurance. 
Not  only  has  the  forest  been  cleared  away,  but  even  the 
mountains  are  being  leveled.  From  the  thirteenth  floor  of 
my  hotel  I  can  see  line  after  line  of  hills  interspersed  with 
lakes  and  gulfs.  These  hills  are  partially  cleared  of  forest 
and  are  already  dotted  here  and  there  with  houses.  Build 
ing  lots  are  marked  out  among  new  streets  that  have  been 
carried  up  the  steepest  slopes,  paved  and  provided  with 
sidewalks.  In  a  few  months  these  streets  will  be  lined  with 
houses.  They  are  already  served  by  busy,  restless  tram 
ways,  with  their  surprising  contempt  for  gradients  and  un 
inhabited  localities ;  and  they  are  lighted,  after  the  Seattle 
style,  with  an  abundance  of  five-branch  electric  standards 
worthy  of  the  Avenue  de  POpera  in  Paris. 

The  Moving  Houses 

In  certain  places,  notably  near  the  New  Washington 
Hotel,  the  gradient  was  really  too  much  even  for  the  Seattle 
tramways ;  but  no  time  was  lost  in  hesitating,  and  the  hill 
was  simply  decapitated.  It  is  now  being  treated  just  as 
one  might  take  off  the  upper  half  of  a  cottage  loaf.  This 
gets  rid  of  a  hill  about  three  hundred  feet  high  and  provides 
a  comparatively  level  roadway.  This  bold  operation,  how- 


FROM   SEATTLE   TO   SALT  LAKE   CITY  77 

ever,  was  not  foreseen,  and  some  of  the  inhabitants  had 
established  their  homes  on  the  top  of  the  hill,  whence  they 
enjoyed  a  splendid  view  over  the  gulf  and  lakes.  The 
existence  of  these  houses  was  a  mere  detail.  They  were 
simply  moved  down.  Like  another  Macbeth,  I  have  seen 
these  houses  come  down  the  hill,  and  they  are  moving  as  I 
watch.  I  have  to  go  and  satisfy  myself  that  I  am  not  under 
some  optical  illusion.  Most  of  these  pretty  houses  are  built 
of  wood,  but  brick  and  even  stone  houses,  as  we  shall  see 
later,  are  successfully  moved  in  the  same  way.  The  wooden 
houses  are  comparatively  large,  the  most  spacious  containing 
at  least  ten  rooms.  Being  perched  on  the  hillside  (which 
in  the  meantime  is  being  attacked  night  and  day  by  boring 
machines,  the  earth  being  conveyed  elsewhere  by  a  series 
of  railways),  they  may  be  said  to  be  ready  for  traveling. 
The  foundations  which  rest  on  a  square  of  logs  are  soon  laid 
bare,  and  are  replaced  by  a  square  framework  of  lumber, 
under  which  two  immense  wooden  beams,  pointing  downhill 
like  an  enormous  chariot,  are  slipped,  a  sort  of  bridge  or 
inclined  plane  leading  downhill  having  been  previously 
made.  Piles  of  roughly  hewn  logs  are  placed,  one  above 
the  other,  like  a  child's  building  blocks,  their  number  being 
smaller  and  smaller  as  the  inclined  plane,  to  which  they  act 
as  supports,  comes  nearer  the  level  of  the  new  site,  where 
everything  is  made  ready  for  the  house.  Down  this  rudi 
mentary  bridge,  which  looks  as  if  it  had  been  designed 
by  a  child,  the  two  beams,  and  the  house  with  them,  are 
gently  lowered  by  means  of  a  clever  combination  of  ropes, 
until  the  house  has  reached  the  plot  that  is  waiting  for  it. 
Strong  wheels  are  then  fitted  to  the  beams,  and  the  house  is 
steered  to  the  exact  spot  desired  and  is  ready  for  occupation. 
I  had  a  conversation  with  the  owner  of  one  of  these 
houses  while  she  was  putting  the  finishing  touches  to  a 
small  garden  in  front  of  her  veranda  in  its  new  place. 
My  surprise,  or  rather  my  astonishment,  seemed  to  amuse 


78  AMERICA  AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

her,  and  she  was  kind  enough  to  tell  me  all  I  wanted  to 
know  about  her  removal.  "  Nothing  could  be  simpler," 
she  said.  "  Everything  inside  the  house  was  left  as  it  was. 
The  furniture,  fixtures,  pictures,  and  so  on,  all  stayed  in 
their  places.  We  did  not  even  have  a  window-pane 
broken."  It  was  perfectly  true,  and  I  have  seen  at  Seattle, 
at  Minneapolis,  St.  Paul  and  Buffalo,  other  houses 
moved  in  the  same  way,  with  their  windows  intact  and  the 
curtains  in  their  place  just  as  if  nothing  unusual  were 
going  on.  The  lady's  satisfaction,  however,  was  not  alto 
gether  unalloyed,  inasmuch  as,  according  to  what  she  told 
me,  the  moving  cost  her  $25,000,  including  everything.  I 
asked  if  she  could  not  have  had  a  new  house  built  for 
the  same  cost,  to  which  she  replied,  philosophically : 
"  Probably." 

The  contractor,  whom  I  found  at  his  works,  was  more 
optimistic.  He  pointed  out  that,  by  letting  one  of  these 
transplanted  houses  for  five  or  six  years,  the  owner  gets 
back  the  cost  of  moving  it.  In  the  meantime  the  land 
increases  in  value  and  the  house  can  be  rebuilt  for  a 
permanency. 

The  Seattle  Spirit 

None  the  less,  shaving  off  the  top  of  a  hill  and 
moving  the  ground,  with  the  houses  on  it,  into  the 
valley  —  an  operation  known  as  "  degrading"  -is  an 
uncommon  exploit,  except  at  Seattle,  where  extraordinary 
things  are  the  rule  and  where  the  principal  object  is  to 
accomplish  the  impossible.  People  talk  about  the  "  Seattle 
spirit,"  "what  Seattle  wants"  and  the  "Seattle  walk," 
and  there  is  some  truth  in  it.  I  have  met  many  Americans 
with  a  "  sure- to-get- there  "  style  of  walking,  just  like  their 
conversation. 

This  self-confidence  has  already  shown  what  it  can  do.  It 
was  what  led  the  citizens  of  Seattle  to  discuss  plans  for 


FROM   SEATTLE   TO   SALT  LAKE  CITY  79 

laying  out  the  city  on  a  larger  scale  while  the  terrible  fire 
in  1889  was  still  raging.  Thanks  also  to  this  spirit,  they 
compelled  the  railway  companies  to  pay  attention  to  their 
district,  which  was  thought  of  very  little  account  at  that 
time.  The  companies  refused  to  establish  their  terminals 
in  such  a  chaos  of  mountains  and  lakes.  They  set  down 
the  idea  as  impossible  and  crazy.  Not  to  be  discouraged, 
the  Seattle  men  set  to  work  themselves  in  gangs  and,  with 
out  any  outside  help,  they  built  the  most  difficult  section 
of  the  line,  starting  from  Seattle,  ready  to  connect  with 
the  future  trunk  line.  Since  that  time  Seattle,  together 
with  the  two  other  northwestern  ports,  Portland  and 
Tacoma,  has  become  a  center  for  all  the  transcontinental 
railroads.  At  present  there  are  six ;  there  will  soon  be  eight, 
and,  no  doubt,  others  later  on.  In  this  way  a  great  center 
for  trade  with  the  Far  East  has  been  built  up.  It  is  easy 
to  understand  why  Seattle  absolutely  refuses  to  join  in 
any  so-called  patriotic  movement  against  Japan.  Seattle 
has  shortened  the  journey  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific 
and  Japan  by  two  days,  owing  to  the  curvature  of  the 
earth's  surface.  In  connection  with  the  surrounding 
ports,  such  as  Tacoma,  Everett,  Victoria,  Vancouver  and 
Portland,  Seattle  has  become  the  great  supply  center  for 
Alaska  and  British  Columbia.  A  great  many  people  work 
in  the  Klondike  during  the  summer  and  return  to  Seattle 
for  the  winter. 

Prophets  of  ill  omen  predict  all  sorts  of  failures  and  dis 
appointments  for  too-ambitious  Seattle;  but  the  bolder 
spirits  reply : 

"What  does  that  matter?  We  can  stand  disappoint 
ments.  We  are  not  working  for  ourselves  alone,  but  for  the 
city,  for  the  country  and  the  future.  Nothing  venture, 
nothing  win ;  if  we  have  setbacks,  we  will  begin  again,  and 
if  we  still  fail,  others  will  get  the  benefit  of  what  we  have 
done.  Nothing  is  lost.  It  makes  no  difference  when  the 


So  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

Panama  Canal  is  finished  or  how  fast  the  cities  competing 
with  us  grow.  The  port  of  Seattle  is  in  the  middle  of  such 
a  rich  district  that  it  is  bound  to  take  its  place  not  only  as 
a  connecting  link  between  East  and  West,  but  as  a  market 
for  produce.  This  is  why  so  much  Eastern  money  is  in 
vested  here,  and  why  the  rise  in  value  of  real  estate  justifies 
us  in  spending  lavishly  with  an  eye  to  the  future.  Lake 
Washington,  which  is  deep  enough  for  the  biggest  fleets 
in  the  world,  will  soon  be  connected  through  the  city  with 
the  Sound ;  we  will  begin  to  get  coal  out  of  our  mines,  we 
will  have  our  own  steel  works  and  our  crops  will  give  ten 
times  as  much  as  they  do  now. 

The  "Single  Tax" 

"  Capital  from  outside  works  with  an  absolute  certitude 
at  Seattle,  and  it  has  come  to  such  a  point  with  us  that  the 
question  of  property  presents  itself  in  a  new  light.  Henry 
George's  theories  have  a  good  many  believers  here,  and  it  is 
easy  to  understand  why.  Look  at  this  piece  of  real  estate. 
Ten  years  ago  it  was  worth  nothing,  and  now  it  would  sell 
for  a  million  dollars.  Its  owner  is  simply  waiting  while 
the  city  works  for  his  benefit.  He  lives  in  Chicago  or 
New  York  and  does  nothing.  He  is  speculating  on  other 
men's  labor.  Is  this  right  or  just?  The  same  question 
has  arisen  at  Vancouver,  and  it  has  been  settled,  not  by 
Socialism  but  by  what  is  called  the  "  single  tax,"  based  on 
the  value  of  the  ground,  according  to  Henry  George's 
system.  Land  should  bring  in  revenue  for  the  community 
and  not  for  the  owner  alone. 

"You,  gentlemen  from  Europe  and  the  East,  you  will 
have  to  understand  that  we  cannot  live  by  your  ways  of 
settling  things,  and  that  we  must  find  our  own.  Do  not 
try  to  measure  us  by  your  standards.  We  are  different 
from  you,  through  the  force  of  circumstances  and  through 


FROM   SEATTLE   TO   SALT  LAKE   CITY  8 1 

your  own  fault.  Civilization  has  always  moved  westward 
with  the  sun,  and  now  it  has  reached  the  end  of  the  jour 
ney,  where  we  are.  On  us  lies  the  burden  of  all  your 
disappointments  and  excesses,  as  also  of  whatever  good 
you  have  done.  We  have  to  deal  with  all  the  problems 
you  have  not  been  able  to  solve.  At  least  let  us  view 
the  task  through  our  own  eyes  and  take  it  in  hand  in  our 
own  way.  We  are  a  new  people  in  a  new  sphere,  and  we 
have  to  find  out  new  ways  —  our  own  ways;  not  yours." 

The  Churches 

Thus,  it  will  be  seen,  the  Seattle  spirit  does  not  accept 
European  ideas  without  due  examination.  The  Seattle 
spirit  takes  nothing  for  granted.  It  shows  itself  in  every 
department  of  life  ;  in  the  churches,  for  instance,  where  my 
lectures  were  organized  to  perfection.  I  shall  refer  later  on 
to  the  Presbyterian  church,  and  I  must  also  express  my 
gratitude  to  the  Congregational  church,  the  most  demo 
cratic  of  all  and  also  the  oldest.  It  is  under  no  bishop  and 
is  not  connected  with  any  organized  church  system.  Its 
congregation  consists  of  people  who  combined  to  build 
their  own  church  and  manage  it  after  their  own  way,  without 
any  interference  from  outside  or  above.  As  the  number  of 
churches  increases,  they  combine  in  turn.  The  members 
of  the  congregation  elect  their  minister,  and  very  good 
choices  they  make.  They  organize  their  Sunday  school, 
their  concerts  and  their  meetings  —  in  fact,  every  form 
of  their  intense  activity. 

This,  moreover,  is  how  a  great  many  Protestant  churches 
in  America  regard  their  educational  mission.  They  are 
open  to  moral  instruction  of  any  kind.  The  teaching  of 
conciliation  and  international  justice  is  by  no  means  outside 
their  program,  but,  on  the  contrary,  forms  part  of  it.  There 
are  a  great  many  who  think  that  the  schools  ought  to  be 


82  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

used  for  purposes  of  general  instruction,  outside  school 
hours.  Their  theory  is  that  the  schools  belong  to  the 
people,  and  that  the  people  ought  to  have  the  use  of  them. 

2.    The  Seattle  Exhibition.    Past  and  Future 

The  Washington  State  University  considers  it  an  honor 
to  give  object  lessons  and  practical  assistance  to  the  city 
of  Seattle.  The  one  helps  the  other.  I  was  unable  to 
talk  as  long  as  I  could  have  wished  with  the  devoted  and 
distinguished  men  who  founded  this  university,  and  es 
pecially  with  its  chancellor  and  professor,  Edmond  S. 
Meany,  one  of  the  good  genii  who  are  constantly  exalting 
and  stimulating  the  Seattle  spirit,  which  he  defined  as 
"  disinterested  civic  cooperation."  To  see  and  do  all  I 
wanted,  I  should  have  had  to  stay  months  in  each  one  of 
the  cities  I  was  visiting,  and  I  was  obliged  to  confine  myself 
to  a  rapid  inspection,  with  the  assistance  of  reliable 
guides.  I  must  not  omit,  however,  to  mention  the  1909 
Exhibition,  the  remembrance  and  the  traces  of  which  were 
still  very  evident.  It  was  organized  by  the  university  and 
in  the  university,  on  the  finest  site  that  could  possibly  be 
imagined,  overlooking  the  panorama  formed  by  the  city, 
its  hills,  valleys,  lakes,  gulfs  and  sheets  of  water.  The 
site  itself,  and  the  information  given  me  by  the  organizers, 
showed  me  clearly  enough  why  the  exhibition  was  a  success. 
None  the  less  it  was  really  a  paradox,  if  not  a  folly.  To 
undertake  an  international  exhibition  at  the  furthest 
extremity  of  the  United  States,  and  in  such  a  distant  and 
thinly  populated  district,  must  have  looked  like  a  defiance 
of  common  sense  and  a  certain  failure.  Not  at  all;  it 
was  an  excellent  operation  from  every  point  of  view  —  a 
master  stroke,  in  fact.  It  was  a  means  of  making  a 
center  out  of  a  place  on  the  edge  of  the  continent.  It 
was,  first  of  all,  a  center  between  the  future  and  the  past, 


FROM  SEATTLE   TO   SALT  LAKE  CITY  83 

which  is  always  a  matter  of  great  interest  here.  Seattle  is 
a  thing  of  yesterday,  but  is  all  the  more  anxious  to  keep 
up  the  connection  with  its  origin.  The  exhibition  was  a 
tribute  to  explorers  and  navigators  in  general,  to  Cook, 
to  Drake,  to  Spain  in  the  heroic  epoch  of  Charles  V  and 
Philip  II,  to  the  England  of  Elizabeth,  and  to  the  Russia 
of  Peter  the  Great,  not  forgetting  the  French  explorers  whose 
names  are  commemorated  in  Mount  La  Perouse,  Mount 
Crillon  and  the  new  city  of  Juneau,  built  in  1880  by  a 
nephew  of  the  founder  of  Milwaukee.  Having  thus  shown 
Seattle's  right  to  its  heraldic  quarterings,  I  will  add  that 
Seattle  has  to  be  a  center,  not  merely  in  time,  but  in  space, 
both  abstract  and  practical  —  a  center  of  economic,  political, 
intellectual  and  social  activity.  For  these  reasons,  Seattle 
took  care  not  to  give  its  name  to  the  exhibition,  but  adorned 
it  with  a  title  which  signified  a  great  deal  more  than  the  name 
of  any  one  city,  however  great,  could  give;  namely,  the 
"  Alaska- Yukon-Pacific  Exhibition."  Behold,  then,  Seattle 
as  the  capital  of  the  Pacific  coast,  extending  from  the  Arctic 
circle  to  the  Tropics!  Behold  her  a  connecting  link  be 
tween  the  Far  North  and  the  Far  South !  as  she  is  between 
the  Far  East  and  the  West,  which  last  has  become  Orien 
tal  in  relation  to  Seattle.  Behind  Seattle  the  world  dis 
solves  in  dawn.  The  sun  does  not  set,  it  rises  at  Seattle. 

Far  West  to  Far  East.    From  the  Arctic  Circles  to  the  Tropics 

By  means  of  its  exhibition  Seattle  placed  itself,  politically 
speaking,  on  the  great  international  highroad.  It  ceased 
to  be  an  isolated  point;  it  became  a  junction,  a  post  of 
honor,  a  terminal  open  towards  all  four  of  the  principal 
points  of  the  compass.  The  Pacific  and  Atlantic  coasts 
might  almost  be  said  to  meet  on  its  territory  and  complete 
a  circle  from  which  American  unity  will  expand.  Why, 
however,  should  this  circle  be  closed  at  Seattle  instead  of 


84  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

very  much  farther  on?  Why  should  not  the  Yukon, 
Alaska  and  other  regions  still  newer  than  Seattle  be  brought 
into  it?  When  this  is  done,  Seattle  will  become,  in  its  turn, 
a  sort  of  elder  sister  showing  the  way  to  younger  communi 
ties.  At  present  a  colony,  it  will  rise  to  the  rank  of  a  me 
tropolis  and  have  its  own  markets,  its  own  purposes  and  a 
clientele  which  will  give  it  more  influence  in  the  councils 
of  the  United  States,  where  the  new  territories,  generally 
the  best  equipped  and  the  most  advanced,  are  naturally 
those  that  command  the  greatest  amount  of  attention. 
We  may  therefore  expect  to  see  the  territories  of  Alaska 
transformed  one  of  these  days  into  states,  with  capitols, 
parliaments,  governors  and  supreme  courts.  Nothing 
is  more  probable.  It  was  only  in  1870  that  the  United 
States  bought  from  Russia  this  peninsula  five  or  six  times 
as  large  as  France  for  37,000,000  francs,  scarcely  a  third  of 
what  the  gold  mines  of  Alaska  alone  now  yield  annually. 
In  ten  years  the  general  production  of  Alaska  has  reached 
a  total  of  $300,000,000.  Commerce,  formerly  limited  to 
the  fur  products  and  seal  fisheries,  has  risen  from  almost 
nothing  to  $150,000,000  in  1909  with  the  United  States. 
Gold,  in  Alaska  as  in  California,  has  ceased  to  be  the  principal 
source  of  wealth;  metals  of  all  sorts  are  abundant,  along 
with  coal,  woods  suitable  for  building,  and  cereals,  in  a 
disconcerting  climate  where  the  snow  forever  seems  to 
cover  the  land,  but  where  the  long  days  of  summer  with  their 
eighteen  hours  of  sunshine  hasten  the  maturing  of  the  crops. 
It  is  a  new  fountain  of  youth  for  humanity ;  and  to  think 
that  people  talk  of  the  exhaustion  of  the  earth  and  of  the 
decadence  of  our  time !  I  understood  the  energy  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Seattle  better  after  the  surprise  of  Alaska. 
It  is  in  them,  to  be  sure,  but  it  is  multiplied  by  the  enthu 
siasm  of  enterprises  opened  to  the  competition  of  superior 
activity  in  these  virgin  countries,  sources  of  physical  and 
moral  sanity  where  human  vigor  is  increased  tenfold. 


FROM   SEATTLE   TO   SALT   LAKE   CITY  85 

The  best  is  sure  to  succeed  there.  There  also,  more  than 
anywhere  else,  will  signifies  success.  Nothing  is  more 
natural  as  a  consequence  than  to  see  these  wills, 
which  have  triumphed  over  such  great  obstacles,  con 
tinue  to  dominate  the  resistance  and  the  routine  of  the 
rest  of  the  country.  New  York  has  succumbed  to  the 
influence  of  Chicago,  which  is  now  influenced  by  Seattle, 
and  that  city,  as  it  grows  older,  will  come  under  the  in 
fluence  of  another.  This  is  all  in  the  regular  order  of 
things,  The  colonial  enterprises  of  our  time  are  so  many 
renovations  of  the  world  of  to-day,  including  the  United 
States,  just  as  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  was  a 
renovation  for  the  Old. 

3.   Seattle's  Ambition.     The  Railways 

The  first  railroad  which  connected  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific,  in  1869,  not  only  put  new  life  into  the  United  States, 
but  transformed  their  unity,  previously  a  mere  phrase,  into 
a  reality.  First  of  all  came  the  old  Central  and  Union 
Pacific  line  and  then  the  Northern  Pacific  in  1883.  After 
this,  the  Great  Northern  was.  extended  as  far  as  Seattle  in 
1893.  I  shall  deal  with  the  Great  Northern  later  on  when 
I  come  to  its  founder,  James  J.  Hill,  at  St.  Paul.  Popula 
tion  and  produce  increased,  as  if  by  magic,  to  show  that 
these  new  railroads  were  needed,  and  to  demand  others. 
In  my  ignorance  I  had  imagined  that  all  this  country  was 
left  desolate.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  already  exporting 
a  variety  of  produce,  specimens  of  which  have  been  shown 
me,  ranging  from  miraculous  drafts  of  salmon  and  other 
fish,  game,  canned  provisions,  furs  (seal,  bear,  blue  fox, 
beaver,  goat  and  muskrat  skins)  and  gold,  to  agri 
cultural  produce  of  the  most  European  kind,  and  even  to 
fruit  like  the  kinds  grown  in  Europe.  The  total  value 
of  all  this  produce  has  already  reached  an  immense  figure. 


86  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

The  traffic  of  the  ports  on  the  Pacific  coast  has  increased 
by  io2j  per  cent  in  fifteen  years,  and  the  exports  from 
Seattle  and  Tacoma  alone  have  risen  from  three  million 
to  seventy  million  dollars.  Seattle  even  exports  southern 
as  well  as  northern  produce,  including  an  enormous  quan 
tity  of  cotton.  All  this  is  so  obviously  the  outcome  of 
human  enterprise  that  the  people  of  Seattle  can  hardly  be 
prevented  from  planning  out  their  future  on  the  lines  of 
their  past,  short  as  it  is,  and  from  shrugging  their  shoulders 
at  the  timidity  born  of  our  too  long  experience. 

New  Ideals.     The  French  Revolution 

How  can  there  be  any  limit  to  the  ambition  of  a  people 
whose  enterprises  have  already  proved  so  successful? 
We  can  readily  understand  that  they  are  not  content  with 
exercising  merely  a  business  influence,  and  that  they  want 
to  help  to  give  the  whole  nation,  if  not  the  world,  new 
ideals  and  a  new  policy.  We  may  smile  skeptically,  but 
the  fact  is  that  youth,  imagination,  inventiveness  and 
genius  meet  with  encouragement  in  these  new  countries, 
instead  of  mockery  and  opposition.  There  is  a  demand, 
as  they  say  here,  for  initiative.  Every  effort  made  by  these 
new  cities  leads  to  providing  some  additional  resource  for 
the  Old  World,  and  we  European  producers  and  inventors 
are  dependent  on  these  bold  pioneers,  who  are  bound  to 
become  our  customers  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term.  I 
have  not  yet  mentioned  how  the  arguments  (which  I  have 
already  summarized)  in  favor  of  Henry  George's  theories 
were  put  forward  in  my  presence,  or  how  enthusiastically 
they  were  urged.  I  was  alone  in  a  railway  car  when  two 
Americans  came  and  sat  down  beside  me,  one  after  the 
other,  and  began  a  conversation.  The  first,  a  man  between 
twenty-five  and  thirty  years  of  age,  with  a  frank  and  open 
expression,  had  attended  some  of  my  lectures.  He  was  a 


FROM    SEATTLE   TO   SALT   LAKE   CITY  87 

drummer  in  the  flour  trade,  and  wanted  to  take  the  oppor 
tunity  of  thanking  me.  He  told  me  about  his  journeys  in 
Alaska,  like  a  thorough  business  man,  and  finished  with  a 
remark  which,  in  Seattle,  seemed  quite  natural:  "When 
I  have  made  my  pile,  I  will  devote  myself  to  two  causes  in 
which  I  am  intensely  interested,  the  relief  of  poverty  and 
the  organization  of  peace.  In  the  meantime  I  keep  myself 
acquainted  as  well  as  I  can  with  what  is  going  on/'  The 
other  man  was  a  lawyer  somewhat  older,  of  a  more  excitable 
temperament,  and  might  even  be  described  as  in  open  revolt 
against  things  as  they  are.  He  began  by  wanting  to  know 
what  I  thought  about  Turgot  and  the  physiocrats.  He 
knew  all  about  the  events  that  led  up  to  the  French  revolu 
tion  and  was  very  eager  for  French  culture  and  an  ardent 
consumer  of  French  ideas.  I  was  very  sorry  to  part  from 
him. 

The  Products  follow  the  Ideas 

The  people  of  Seattle,  however,  consume  a  great  deal 
besides  ideas.  They  actually  aim  at  putting  the  best  kind 
of  furniture  in  their  brand-new  houses,  hanging  the  best 
French  pictures,  such  as  are  found  all  over  America,  on 
the  walls,  and  accumulating  our  works  of  art  and  the  very 
best  of  everything !  To  mention  another  point :  As 
Seattle  is  becoming  a  capital,  it  needs  a  concert  hall.  I 
can  say  nothing  about  the  theaters.  I  hardly  dare  say  it, 
but  throughout  my  journey  I  did  not  manage  to  find  a 
single  evening  for  going  to  the  theater.  I  myself  was  the 
show ;  and  yet  French  authors  supply  the  Americans  with 
plays  that  are  given  all  over  the  country.  The  time  of  my 
journey  corresponded  with  that  of  a  comic  opera  or 
vaudeville  troupe,  which  was  sometimes  ahead  of  me  and 
sometimes  behind  me,  and  was  in  competition  with  me 
wherever  I  went.  I  should  have  liked  to  go  and  see  it. 
This  troupe  was  giving  a  play  adapted,  I  believe,  from  the 


88  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

French  and  called  ''Madame  Sherry,"  but  all  I  saw  of  it 
was  its  bewilderingly  brightly  colored  posters.  I  neverthe 
less  met  some  artists,  and  was  surprised  to  hear  that 
symphony  concerts  were  already  very  much  appreciated 
at  Seattle,  and  to  such  an  extent  that  a  conductor  had 
been  able  to  get  together  an  orchestra  modeled  on  the 
Colonne  orchestra  in  Paris.  It  comprised  63  instrumental 
ists,  and  I  was  told  that  great  European  artists  whom  it 
had  accompanied  were  very  pleased  with  it.  Obviously 
the  greater  part  of  the  orchestra  came  from  Europe ;  and 
they  played  European  music  —  Beethoven,  Wagner,  Schu 
mann,  Cesar  Franck,  Massenet,  Saint-Saens  and  Debussy. 
The  Seattle  orchestra  intends  to  be  quite  as  good  as  that 
of  LBoston,  which  is  one  of  the  best  in  the  world  and  where 
the  tickets  are  sold  by  auction  every  year  at  very  high 
prices,  enabling  the  management  to  pay  handsome  fees 
and  attract  the  best  European  artists. 

Wherever  I  go,  I  see  openings  for  our  artists,  engineers, 
doctors,  surgeons,  teachers,  governesses  and  architects, 
if  only  they  could  bring  themselves  to  speak  a  little  English  ; 
but^though  we  do  not  care  to  leave  our  own  country,  which 
is  understandable  after  all,  here  we  can  at  least  find  in 
structive  examples,  in  both  small  things  and  great,  which 
would  be  so  much  wealth  for  us  and  would  temper  our  metal 
afresh,  as  it  has  done  for  people  here,  if  we  only  knew. 

Bad  Management.    Deforestation.     American  Waste 

It  will  perhaps  be  said  that  the  resources  I  admire  so  much 
cannot  last;  that,  for  want  of  provident  and  far-seeing 
management,  they  will  soon  be  exhausted,  and  that  the 
fat  years  will  soon  be  followed  by  lean  ones.  Some  men  — 
capable,  I  admit,  but  too  pessimistic  —  say :  "America  will 
be  played  out  in  fifty  years.  Her  population  will  have 
doubled,  and  the  soil  will  not  produce  enough  to  feed 


FROM   SEATTLE   TO   SALT  LAKE   CITY  89 

every  one.  Her  devastated  forests  will  have  gone  alto 
gether.  Her  areas  of  cultivation,  which  are  immense  but 
neglected,  will  be  poor  in  comparison  with  the  results  ob 
tained  by  intensive  farming  in  Europe.  Her  coal,  minerals, 
timber  and  the  earth  itself  will  have  been  worked  out." 
The  same  has  been  said  of  the  soil  in  France,  and  yet  we 
see  it  now  producing,  under  scientific  management,  four 
or  five  times  as  much,  in  some  places,  as  it  did  formerly. 
The  day  no  doubt  will  come  when  America  will  be  thickly 
populated,  but  the  people  will  then  be  better  educated  and 
more  ingenious,  and  they  will  no  longer  eat  their  corn  in 
the  blade.  The  earth  is  not  so  easy  to  kill  as  some  sup 
pose.  Deforestation,  the  destruction  of  fish  and  game,  and 
wasteful  mining  are  a  present  danger  here  as  elsewhere, 
but  action  is  being  taken  against  this  danger,  and  in  this 
matter,  too,  the  new  countries  will  gain  by  our  mistakes.  I 
see  proof  of  this  at  Seattle,  as  well  as  at  Washington,  where, 
during  Mr.  Roosevelt's  presidency,  I  met  an  afforestation 
apostle,  Mr.  Pinchot,  a  man  of  French  origin,  as  enthusias 
tic  as  a  Frenchman  and  an  ardent  upholder  of  American 
greatness  and  the  proper  management  of  his  country's 
natural  resources. 

Whatever  may  be  said  about  it,  I  wonder  where  America's 
productive  capacity  will  stop,  seeing  how  enterprising  and 
methodical  the  people  are,  and  how  greatly  they  have  sim 
plified  their  methods.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  are 
wasteful  and  not  very  careful.  In  personal  matters,  the 
lack  of  order  among  Americans  is  enough  to  astound  a 
French  housewife.  Whoever  has  seen  an  American  auto 
mobile  stop  at  a  French  inn  and  disgorge  a  confusion  of 
miscellaneous  articles,  and  has  observed,  after  the  travelers 
have  gone,  that  the  bedrooms  look  as  if  a  cyclone  had 
struck  them,  or  has  merely  been  present  at  a  meal  and  seen 
how  the  Americans,  like  the  English,  never  finish  what  they 
have  on  their  plates,  can  form  some  idea  of  the  unlimited 


90  AMERICA   AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

waste  that  is  the  rule  among  the  so-called  Anglo-Saxon 
race,  in  complete  contrast  to  the  Frenchman's  carefulness 
and  strict  economy.  No  one  is  more  inclined  than  myself 
to  find  fault  with  this  wastefulness,  and  I  have  never 
succeeded  in  accustoming  myself  to  it,  but,  to  be  just,  we 
must  recognize  that  it  has  its  good  side.  It  implies  doing 
things  on  a  big  scale  and  in  a  spirit  of  self-confidence  in 
stead  of  suspicion ;  it  reduces  personal  effort  to  a  minimum 
and  saves  it  up  for  the  work  that  is  really  essential. 

American   Organization.     The   States   of  Washington   and 

Oregon 

Organizing  and  simplifying  progress  is  also  a  form  of 
carefulness,  or,  as  some  might  prefer  to  put  it,  takes  the 
place  of  that  quality  and  produces  the  same  results  with  less 
trouble.  All  these  souvenirs  of  the  1909  Exhibition,  as 
well  as  the  collections  I  have  seen,  speak  eloquently.  I 
have  seen  how  an  Oregon  wheat  crop  is  gathered  in.  I 
dare  say  the  land  gives  considerably  less  per  acre  here  than 
it  does  in  France  or  Belgium,  but  this  is  merely  a  question  of 
manure.  For  the  time  being,  the  great  extent  and  small 
value  of  the  land  make  up  for  this  disadvantage;  other 
methods  will  be  taken  in  hand  later  on.  In  the  meantime, 
one  sees  strange  threshing  machines  hauled  by  thirty 
horses  through  oceans  of  cereals  which  they  reap  and  bind 
into  sheaves.  A  great  many  ears  are  no  doubt  lost,  but 
there  is  a  great  saving  in  time  and  wages ;  and  what  do  a  few 
ears  matter  in  a  field  of  such  vast  size  ?  It  is  not  a  wheat- 
field,  but  a  field  of  battle  ;  the  sheaves,  formed  in  squares 
that  extend  farther  than  the  eye  can  see,  look  like  an  army 
split  up  into  thousands  of  regular  platoons.  Then  we  have 
the  pasture  lands,  extending  over  hill  and  dale,  belonging 
to  some  gigantic  farm,  extending  far  away  to  the  horizon 
and  bounded  only  by  the  majestic  white  outline  of  Mount 


FEOM   SEATTLE   TO    SALT   LAKE   CITY  pi 

Hood  or  the  crown  of  Mount  Olympus ;  flocks  of  sheep 
on  the  pastures  and  flowers  in  the  gardens,  and  villas 
perched  on  the  hillside  like  so  many  opera  boxes  from  which 
to  watch  the  daily  spectacle  of  the  sun  setting  in  the  glory 
of  sky,  cloud  and  water.  These  villas  are  much  simpler 
but  by  no  means  less  pretty  than  those  in  California  —  the 
two-story  cottages  with  verandas,  their  ground  floor 
hidden  in  rhododendron  bushes  and  their  walls  covered 
from  top  to  bottom  with  cascades  of  climbing  roses. 

Culture  and  Gathering  of  Apples 

What  shall  I  say  of  the  activity  that  goes  on  at  the  ports, 
where  immense  lots  of  lumber  that  have  floated  or  been 
brought  by  tugs  downstream  from  the  mountains  are  cut 
up  by  sawmills  on  the  river  bank,  where  the  ships  are  loaded 
and  unloaded  in  a  few  hours,  and  every  bottom  is  adapted 
to  the  cargo  it  is  intended  to  carry  ?  And  then  the  rectan 
gular  forests  of  hops,  and  regiments  of  apple  trees,  and  the 
gathering  of  the  apples !  Here  again  the  Washington  and 
Oregon  farmer  has  obtained  a  great  advantage  over  his 
fellows  in  Europe  by  better  methods,  designed  to  save 
time  and  handling.  These  justly  celebrated  apples  are 
gathered  by  armies  of  youths,  collected  in  great  numbers 
so  as  to  finish  the  work  as  quickly  as  possible.  They  work 
on  ingeniously  contrived  ladders  which  I  recommend  to  our 
Norman  and  Maine  farmers.  We  have  a  bad  habit  of 
knocking  our  apples  down  from  the  trees  —  by  which  I 
do  not  mean  that  we  treat  an  apple  tree  like  a  walnut  tree, 
but  we  take  no  precautions  and  do  a  good  deal  of  damage 
to  the  next  crop.  The  Americans,  on  the  other  hand,  gather 
the  fruit  by  hand  so  as  not  to  break  the  twigs  and  branches ; 
but  to  do  this  they  have  special  double  ladders  which  are 
never  leaned  against  the  tree.  Large  two-horse  wagons  are 
driven  about  and  soon  piled  up  with  cases,  stuck  all  over 


9 2  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

with   bright-colored    advertising    labels,   which   are    then 
conveyed  to  the  nearest  railroad  depot  or  port. 

Americans  do  not  confine  themselves  to  gathering  their 
apples  methodically.  They  watch  the  growth  of  the  fruit 
very  much  as  our  vine  growers  look  after  their  vines.  When 
the  blossom  comes  out,  it  is  sprinkled  with  sulphates,  and 
they  obtain  remarkably  regular  and  abundant  crops.  I 
have  been  shown  five-year-old  trees  that  have  each  pro 
duced  hundreds  of  large  apples.  I  mention  this  because 
we,  too,  might  profit  by  this  instance  of  progress.  Our 
ancestors  imported  their  apple  trees  into  Canada,  whence 
they  spread  all  over  the  continent,  meeting  with  great 
favor  and  proving  very  successful;  but  these  emigrant 
apple  trees  experienced  the  same  fate  in  the  New  World 
as  in  the  Old.  They  began  to  die  out,  and  were  looked  upon 
as  finished.  They  were  being  given  up  generally,  when  some 
enterprising  young  landowners  of  my  acquaintance  dis 
covered  how  to  treat  them  and  regenerate  them.  The 
result  is  that  even  the  apple  trees  are  animated  by 
the  Seattle  spirit,  and  America  is  becoming,  not  only  the 
country  that  consumes  more  apples  than  any  other  in  the 
world,  but  the  one  that  already  exports  and  will  go  on 
exporting  the  largest  quantities.  It  is  a  question  of  organ 
ization.  The  Americans  know  how  to  organize.  If  it 
were  possible  to  summarize  the  difference  between  the 
French  and  the  American  temperament  in  one  word,  I  would 
say  that  the  one  has  carefulness  and  the  other  organizing N 
ability.  This  is  true  in  regard  to  a  great  many  other 
kinds  of  produce  besides  apples.  I  know  an  old  beekeeper 
in  France  who  has  just  given  up  his  hives,  while  those  in 
America  are  steadily  becoming  better  and  more  numerous. 
Organization  is  not  the  same  thing  as  the  care,  and  cer 
tainly  not  the  love,  lavished  by  the  French  peasant  on  his 
little  holding,  but  it  supplements  them,  just  as  an  American 
incubator,  is  no  substitute  for  the  hen,  but  takes  the  place 


FROM   SEATTLE   TO   SALT  LAKE   CITY  93 

of  a  hundred  poultry  yards ;  and  Seattle  is  only  one  among 
a  great  many  new  centers  that  are  continually  blossoming 
out.  New  colonies  for  the  regeneration  of  our  descendants 
are  being  formed  all  over  the  world.  Nature  will  give  them 
the  confidence  we  shall  not  be  able  to  hand  down  to  them. 


//  only  France  Knew 

If  only  France  realized  all  this  !  If  only  all  the  dissatisfied 
people  who  exhaust  their  energies  in  fruitless  conflict  and 
recrimination  were  enlightened  as  to  the  spheres  in  which 
they  could  find  a  certain  return  for  their  efforts,  what  an 
amount  of  good  and  useful  seed  they  would  disseminate  in 
the  world,  to  the  honor  of  our  country !  But  they  do  not 
know,  or  rather  they  do  not  know  enough,  for  it  must  be 
admitted  that  great  progress  is  being  accomplished.  French 
men  are  traveling  and  learning  foreign  languages.  Cities 
such  as  Roubaix  and  Grenoble,  following  in  the  footsteps  of 
Lyon,  have  become  centers  of  radiation.  May  the  French 
do  as  their  ancestors  did ;  initiative  is  in  their  blood. 
First  of  all,  may  they  stop  counting  on  the  government, 
which,  republican  or  monarchical,  is  instinctively  hostile 
to  all  personal  enterprise. 

4.   Portland.      The  Sacramento.     The  Gold  Seekers.     The 
Rose  City.      The  Automatic  Telephone 

It  is  a  fine  journey  from  Seattle  to  Tacoma,  and  especially 
from  Tacoma  to  Portland,  through  mighty  mountains, 
rich  in  forests,  mines  and  coal,  to  say  nothing  of  plains  fertile 
with  magnificent  fruit  and  grain.  Portland  is  a  progressive 
city,  like  the  rest,  although  the  Seattle  people  slightingly 
describe  it  as  a  "  conservative  city."  It  is  also  known  as 
the  "Rose  City,"  and  has  over  200,000  inhabitants.  It  is 
the  port  for  the  magnificent  Columbia  valley,  larger  than 


94  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

the  whole  of  France.  It  is  a  very  important  trading  and 
manufacturing  center.  The  ideal,  automatic,  domestic 
telephone,  with  practically  no  exchange  operators,  no  over 
hearing  and  no  loss  of  temper  was  already  in  operation 
here  in  1911.  The  system  was  explained  to  me  by  Mr. 
Samuel  Hill,  the  able  president  of  the  concern.  I  saw 
and  was  much  impressed  by  a  sort  of  library  of  little  in 
struments  that  were  receiving,  and  promptly  transmitting, 
sounds,  voices  and  other  expressions  of  life,  and  taking  the 
place  of  hundreds  of  people  and  brains.  When  we  see 
such  a  delicate,  human,  manifold  and  complicated  system 
worked  by  mechanical  means,  we  may  expect  almost 
anything.  Mr.  Hill  is  also  one  of  the  most  earnest  ad 
vocates  of  the  creation  of  a  network  of  highroads  which 
are  almost  entirely  lacking  in  the  United  States.  I  shall 
have  frequent  occasion  to  refer  to  this  deficiency  as  well 
as  to  the  inadequacy  of  the  river  traffic. 

The  Columbia  River 

The  Columbia  River,  as  seen  when  leaving  Portland  on 
the  east  side,  is  celebrated  for  its  beauty.  It  forms  a  lake, 
or  rather  a  series  of  lakes,  of  the  most  imposing  kind, 
whose  waters  reach  almost  to  the  foot  of  the  high  mountains 
and  rocks  that  form  their  banks.  American  rivers,  neglected 
like  the  trees,  are  on  a  scale  befitting  the  country.  Spread 
ing  out  nobly  over  the  plains  they  have  conquered,  they 
are  none  the  less  fine  in  their  struggle  with  mountains  and 
their  efforts  to  find  their  proper  outlet  in  spite  of  all  ob 
stacles. 

Time  has  not  allowed  me  to  describe  the  Sacramento, 
up  whose  course  we  went  towards  Portland.  It  was 
nevertheless  a  splendid  sight,  calculated  to  call  up  remem 
brance  of  the  early  European  pioneers  and  of  the  conflict 
of  science  and  commerce  against  the  Indians,  the  solitude 


FROM   SEATTLE   TO   SALT   LAKE   CITY  95 

and  the  united  forces  of  Nature.  To-day  the  mountains 
through  which  the  Sacramento  rushes  stand  stripped  of 
their  forests,  which  have  been  ravaged  and  destroyed  by 
fire.  A  great  work  of  reparation  is  here  for  the  American 
people  to  accomplish.  Nowhere,  except  perhaps  in  Turkey 
and  Greece,  have  I  better  realized  man's  improvidence  and 
his  frenzy  to  destroy  what  Nature  has  taken  centuries  to 
prepare.  The  Arabs  say :  "  One  man  can  destroy  what 
a  thousand  could  not  build."  Here  one  might  say:  "One 
man  can  destroy  what  thousands  of  years  have  created." 

The  Gold 

In  combination  with  railways,  gold  —  the  frenzied  thirst 
for  gold  —  is  no  doubt  the  great  offender.  At  the  be 
ginning  everything  was  sacrificed  to  getting  gold  from  the 
banks  of  the  Sacramento,  and,  little  by  little,  this  mag 
nificent  country  has  been  reduced  to  something  like  a  heap 
of  cinders.  Even  the  mines  themselves  fell  victims  to  the 
prevailing  craze  and  were  abandoned,  because  they  had 
not  been  worked  with  an  eye  to  the  future.  Science  has 
now,  as  elsewhere,  corrected  man's  mistakes  and  multiplied 
the  means  at  his  disposal.  A  public  movement,  which  has 
my  heartiest  support,  here  as  in  France,  against  deforesta 
tion  —  another  form  of  violence  —  is  in  process  of  organiza 
tion,  and  in  the  meantime  new  methods  have  made  it 
practicable  to  extract  a  great  deal  more  gold  from  deposits 
which  were  regarded  as  worked  out.  I  was  fortunate 
enough  to  travel  with  and  make  the  acquaintance  of  a 
gold  seeker,  Mr.  Hutchinson,  and  under  his  guidance  I 
saw  the  Sacramento.  He  was,  of  course,  a  wanderer. 
From  Seattle  he  transferred  his  energies  to  the  Klondike, 
where  he  worked  hard  for  eight  years.  He  then  went  down 
to  Arizona,  where  he  established  himself  with  his  family, 
his  motor  car  and  his  crushing  mills.  With  him,  on  the 


96  AMERICA   AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

banks  of  the  Sacramento,  I  followed  the  two  main  processes 
-  the  washing  of  sand  from  the  river  bed  and  the  winning 
of  auriferous  and  other  ores  from  the  mountain.  Gold 
is  by  no  means  the  only  metal  found  in  California.  Silver, 
copper  and  many  other  ores  are  waiting  to  be  opened  up. 
What  progress  has  been  made  !  I  was  shown  a  picture  of  a 
miner  of  fifty  years  ago.  All  he  had  was  a  donkey,  a 
pickax,  a  shovel  and  some  sacks !  Nowadays  the  miner 
can  make  his  choice  from  among  all  sorts  of  ways  of  breaking 
the  rock  into  pieces,  finding  out  what  there  is  in  it,  reducing 
it  to  dust  and  chemically  extracting  whatever  is  valuable. 
Every  village  store  in  the  district  shows  modern  mining 
implements  and  models  of  machines  for  automatically 
cutting  tunnels.  It  is  appalling  to  think  of  the  energy 
that  must  have  been  expended  fifty  years  ago  by  gold 
seekers  in  such  a  desert,  thrown  entirely  upon  their  own 
resources,  first  with  their  poverty  and  then  with  their 
wealth  —  sometimes  the  more  dangerous  of  the  two. 
Everything  is  organized  nowadays.  The  gold  seekers  are 
their  own  policemen.  The  thief  has  distance  and  the 
telegraph  against  him.  As  soon  as  he  vanishes,  his  descrip 
tion  is  sent  out  and  he  is  caught  in  the  next  town.  The 
gold-seeking  business  has  settled  down,  like  others,  and, 
to  judge  by  my  friend,  it  produces  very  fine  men. 

The  crushing  mills  bestride  the  Sacramento  like  so  many 
fisheries,  with  nets  intended  to  catch,  not  fish  but  nuggets. 
Up  above,  masses  of  rock  are  being  blasted  with  dynamite 
close  to  a  rudimentary  house  half  hidden  among  the  charred 
skeletons  of  the  forest.  Then  there  is  a  little  Decauville 
railway  that  brings  its  trucks  full  of  the  fragments  of  rock 
to  just  above  the  house  and  pours  them  into  the  first  floor, 
where  they  are  broken  by  machinery  and  fall  in  small 
pieces  to  the  ground  floor.  Here  they  are  reduced  to 
powder  and  passed  down  to  tanks  in  which  the  gold  is 
dissolved,  precipitated  by  zinc  and  finally  isolated.  Here 


FROM   SEATTLE   TO   SALT  LAKE  CITY  97 

and  there,  solitary  lights  can  be  seen  shining  on  the  moun 
tain  side  at  night.  Each  miner  is  watching  over  his  steadily 
growing  treasure,  protected  solely  by  the  conception  of  a 
common  interest  —  the  need  of  security.  This  need  regu 
lates  modern  organization  all  over  the  world.  Govern 
ments  will  not  evade  the  necessity  of  thus  regulating  their 
relations  with  one  another  by  limiting  their  sacrifices  of 
men  and  money  to  a  minimum.  Future  generations  will 
have  to  make  up  for  a  great  many  mistakes. 

Progress  of  Agriculture 

But,  patience!  The  first  part  of  the  line  from  San 
Francisco  to  Portland  is  a  magnificent  conquest  of  modern 
progress.  Nowhere  have  I  seen  the  material  and  moral 
triumph  of  modern  organization  over  the  confusion  exist 
ing  formerly  more  eloquently  asserted  and  proved.  Here 
we  have  great  mountains  parallel  to  the  coast,  to  the  north 
and  south  of  San  Francisco,  extending  their  fertile  mantles 
as  far  as  the  plains,  like  a  vast  expanse  of  pasture  land  and 
well-prepared  harvests.  Nature  looks  more  animated  and 
alive  than  ever.  Some  of  these  mountain  sides  are  bare; 
some  bristling  with  trees  or  covered  with  live  stock. 
Everywhere  there  are  numberless  legions  of  flocks,  thou 
sands  and  thousands  of  cattle,  sheep  and  horses;  there 
are  hogs,  turkeys  and  chickens,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
flowers  that  brighten  the  greensward  —  blue  flowers  and 
the  Californian  orange-tinted  poppy,  as  brilliant  as  an 
orchid. 

There  is  no  sign  of  protection  for  all  this  life  and  wealth. 
A  dog  can  be  seen  here  and  there,  but  not  a  single  man. 
Organization,  however,  is  here.  Long  lines  of  thousands 
of  fruit  trees  remind  us  that  man  is  at  hand.  He  is  near 
enough  for  his  handiwork  to  be  seen  and  admired,  and  far 
enough  to  give  us  some  idea  of  what  California  will  be 


98  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

like  when,  instead  of  two  million  inhabitants,  it  has  ten 
times  that  number. 

I  am  sorry  not  to  be  able  to  remain  longer  in  the  Pacific 
states,  but  my  route  has  been  mapped  out  for  me,  hour 
by  hour,  for  the  past  two  months,  and  I  cannot  avoid 
disappointing  some  one,  unless  I  resist  temptation  and 
go  on  with  the  regularity  of  a  chronometer.  Farewell, 
then,  to  the  Sierra  Nevada,  the  Cascade  Mountains, 
the  Sacramento,  the  Snake  River,  the  Columbia  River  and 
the  Shasta  mineral  springs.  With  a  salute  to  Mount 
Rainier,  standing  like  a  white  pyramid  in  the  distance,  on 
we  go  through  haughty  chains  of  blue  mountains,  through 
still  undevastated  forests  and  past  torrents  whose  names 
are  unknown  to  me.  Sitting  quietly  in  the  train  I  watch 
these  varied  landscapes  awakening  to  life  under  the  in 
fluence  of  man's  approach.  Passing  the  first  outlying 
spurs  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  we  enter  the  wild  and 
arid  regions,  fertilized  by  the  Mormons,  where  other  ques 
tions  await  us.  Here  I  am  in  Salt  Lake  City. 

5.   Dry  Farming.     The  Mormons 

The  Mormons  have  rendered  humanity  the  very  great 
service  of  reclaiming  an  unattractive  and  supposedly 
sterile  country.  As  the  state  of  Utah  it  has  become 
known,  like  the  rest,  by  the  importance  and  variety  of  its 
produce,  both  mineral  and  agricultural.  This  is  an  irri 
gation  country,  like  Arizona,  with  this  difference,  that  in 
Arizona  the  Federal  administration  paid  for  immense  pub 
lic  works,  the  chief  of  which  was  completed  in  1911  and  is 
called  "the  Roosevelt  Dam";  but  when  irrigation  is  either 
too  expensive  or  impracticable,  the  people  find  something 
else,  and  the  land  does  without  irrigation,  thanks  to  "dry 
farming."  I  have  heard  it  argued  in  France  that  this  is 
simply  our  former  method  of  cultivation  in  furrows,  but 


FROM   SEATTLE   TO   SALT   LAKE   CITY  99 

if  we  consult  the  reports  from  our  representatives  in  Algeria 
and  Tunis  (where  the  question  excites  the  keenest  interest 
and  conflicting  opinions),  and  especially  the  records  of  the 
much-talked-about  Dry  Farming  Congresses,  whose  de 
voted  secretary  I  met  at  Colorado  Springs ;  when  we  hear 
what  the  governor  of  the  state  says  about  the  matter, 
and  when  we  read  the  books  written  by  the  head  of  the 
Utah  Agricultural  College,  Mr.  John  A.  Widtsoe,  commenc 
ing  by  his  celebrated  work  (translated  into  French  by  Miss 
Anne-Marie  Augustin  Bernard),  "Dry  Farming  and  the 
Cultivation  of  Dry  Land,"  it  is  difficult  to  deny  that  here 
we  have  a  really  new  system  of  cultivation  for  semi-arid 
land  in  which  the  moisture  from  rain  that  fell  two  years 
before  can  be  preserved.  This  system  has  been  adopted 
after  patient  experimenting  with  the  special  soil  and  climate 
of  the  country,  and  we  can  understand  why  the  Mormons 
and  their  rather  numerous  imitators  in  the  other  north 
western  states  adhere  to  it.  Consumers  are  quite  as 
enthusiastic  as  producers,  and  I  have  known  the  "non- 
irrigated"  label  on  fruit  to  be  a  recommendation.  Utah 
celery  has  obtained  a  hold  on  the  New  York  market,  and 
beetroot  raising  has  increased  so  much  in  Utah  that  a  great 
many  local  sugar  factories  have  been  put  up. 

The  progress  made  by  this  extraordinary  kind  of  agri 
culture  in  a  more  than  extraordinary  country  has  caused 
the  Mormon  population  to  receive  constantly  increasing 
additions  from  outside,  and  this  has  made  it  possible  to 
work  the  very  valuable  mineral  deposits,  particularly 
copper ;  while  the  workmen,  being  themselves  consumers, 
have  stimulated  the  already  large  agricultural  output. 
This  progress,  of  which  little  was  heard  when  I  was  at 
Salt  Lake  City  in  1911,  as  the  guest  of  that  admirable 
man,  Bishop  Spalding,  is  now  a  widely  recognized  fact.  A 
learned  and  well-known  American,  Professor  W.  M.  Davis, 
of  Harvard  University,  was  the  organizer  of  a  great  scien- 


100  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

tific  excursion,  carried  out  from  August  to  October,  1912, 
through  the  United  States.  He  invited  the  world's  leading 
geographers :  France,  which  he  knows  exceptionally  well, 
was  represented  by  the  principal  disciples  of  our  dear 
countryman  Vidal  de  la  Blache.  In  the  "Annales  de 
Geographic "  (March  15,  1913)  there  is  a  remarkable  series 
of  articles  on  the  most  interesting  of  the  places  visited, 
notably  Utah,  which  M.  Gallois  has  described  in  a  few  pages. 

Illegal  but  Existing  Polygamy 

The  Mormon  sect  is  still  very  powerful.  Its  principle 
is  that  man  should  work  and  produce.  Its  emblem  is  still 
a  hive  with  innumerable  bees.  Polygamy  has  ceased  to  be 
legal  in  Utah  since  the  territory  was  raised  to  the  rank 
of  a  state  and  had  to  conform  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States ;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  still  exists.  It 
cannot  be  abolished  at  short  notice. 

Living  in  vast  and  thinly  peopled  tracts  of  country, 
the  Mormon  colonists  instituted  polygamy  as  an  element 
of  civilization  and  a  religious  duty.  The  best  man,  they 
consider,  is  he  who  has  the  greatest  number  of  children, 
and  the  best  women  are  those  who  share  in  the  accomplish 
ment  of  this  duty.  The  women  are  recruited  in  distant 
countries,  particularly  in  northern  Europe,  whence  the 
immigrants  are  taken  to  Boston  and  thence,  under  various 
labels,  to  Utah,  where  they  declare  themselves  quite  satis 
fied  with  their  mode  of  life  and  even  more  determined  than 
the  men  not  to  change  it.  It  is  true  that  the  country  is  now 
fairly  well  populated,  and  the  old  religious  and  local  obliga 
tion  is  opposed  to  the  legal  and  general  interdiction ;  but 
in  Utah,  as  elsewhere,  the  law  is  powerless  to  change  the 
habits  and  needs  of  the  people,  and  when  it  is  premature, 
it  is  evaded.  Agriculture  still  calls  for  a  great  many  pairs 
of  arms  and  a  great  many  families.  How  are  we  to  con- 


FROM  SEATTLE  TO  $AIT,  LAKE  Cl''?Y        IOI 

demn  to-morrow  what  we  were  obliged  to  accept  yester 
day  and  have  to  tolerate  to-day  ?  How  are  we  to  outlaw 
the  coming  generation  of  children  without  inflicting  injury 
on  those  already  born?  To  take  the  case  of  the  children 
only:  their  position  cannot  be  settled  by  a  mere  decree, 
and  it  is  often  a  very  difficult  one.  Many  of  them  adhere 
to  their  parents'  creed.  They  believe  in  what  their  parents 
taught  and  practiced.  They  belong  to  families  of  ten, 
twenty,  thirty  or  forty  children.  When  a  father  complies 
with  the  new  law  and  repudiates  one  of  his  wives,  he  also 
repudiates  some  of  his  children  and  inflicts  irreparable 
injury  on  their  mother  and  themselves,  while  at  the  same 
time  he  commits  an  act  of  injustice  to  the  detriment  of 
some  and  the  advantage  of  others.  The  situation  becomes 
hopelessly  complicated  as  regards  the  right  of  property 
inheritance.  Such  an  act  is  a  crime  that  divides  a  family 
into  several  hostile  camps  and  sets  brother  against  brother. 
There  are  brothers  in  the  same  town  who  have  not  spoken 
to  one  another  for  twenty  years. 

Nevertheless,  the  state  of  Utah  is  prosperous.  Salt 
Lake  City  is  growing  steadily  and  is  the  most  hospitable  of 
cities.  I  was  invited  to  speak  in  the  Mormon  tabernacle ; 
I  was  presented  to  the  audience  by  the  governor  of  the 
state ;  the  great  organ,  in  this  great  hall  which  will  seat 
14,000  people,  greeted  me  with  a  recital  in  honor  of  France, 
ending,  amid  applause,  with  the  stirring  strains  of  the 
Marseillaise. 

I  also  addressed  an  audience  composed  of  the  three  thou 
sand  young  people  of  both  sexes  attending  the  university  — 
an  audience  of  these  children  that  are  divided  against 
themselves.  I  did  not  want  my  mission  to  omit  a  state 
of  such  importance  —  a  state  that  has  its  vote  and  brings 
its  great  share  of  influence  to  bear  on  Congress  at  Washing 
ton  and  on  the  destiny  of  the  country ;  but  I  must  admit 
that  I  ended  my  visit  to  Utah  in  a  somewhat  doubtful 


102  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

frame  of  mind,  wondering  how  peace,  which  may  be  or 
ganized  among  nations,  can  ever  be  established  in  the 
mental  and  family  life  of  Salt  Lake  City.  It  is  a  question 
of  time,  and  also  of  money  :  of  time,  because  there  is  inter 
communication  among  all  the  states,  and  the  Mormons 
will  be  no  better  able  than  the  Indians  to  remain  isolated 
from  the  American  nation,  especially  as  they  are  more 
industrious,  more  enterprising  and  more  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  trade.  Moreover  it  will  be  with  polygamy  here  as 
elsewhere  —  at  Constantinople,  for  instance.  A  pasha  of 
my  acquaintance,  with  very  cultivated  French  tastes,  took 
advantage  of  the  Young  Turk  revolution  to  bring  his 
young  wife  to  Paris  two  or  three  years  ago.  She  was  no 
less  cultivated  and  no  less  French  than  himself,  and  also 
very  fashionable.  They  paid  sundry  visits  to  the  shops 
and  to  the  dressmakers  in  the  Rue  de  la  Paix.  On  returning 
from  one  of  these  visits,  my  friend  exclaimed :  "This  will 
finish  it!  It  costs  too  much  to  dress  one  wife :  how  can  we 
afford  to  keep  several?  It's  all  over  with  polygamy!"  he 
added,  laughing.  He  was  quite  converted  to  our  view  of 
the  question. 

It  has  also  been  pointed  out  to  me  that  the  sumptuous 
style  of  Mormon  worship  is  extremely  expensive  and  con 
stitutes  a  heavy  tax  on  labor  and  incomes,  in  addition  to 
municipal  and  general  taxation.  The  result  must  be  that 
the  Mormon  religion  will  soon  become,  not  only  anomalous, 
illegal  and  a  source  of  all  kinds  of  difficulties,  but  a  luxury. 


CHAPTER  VI 

COLORADO 

i.  THE  ROCKY  MOUNTAINS.  Colorado  Springs.  The  canon. 
The  cathedral  spires.  The  prairie.  The  Indians.  —  2.  THE  STATE 
UNIVERSITY.  Easter  Sunday.  Presided  over  by  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains.  —  3.  DENVER.  I  lecture  in  English.  Sons  and  Daugh 
ters  of  the  Revolution.  Follow  the  flag!  But  have  it  in  good 
hands.  The  lesson  of  the  Spanish  war.  A  cornet  solo.  —  4.  THE 
CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE,  THE  PRESS,  THE  LEGISLATURE  or  COLO 
RADO.  The  Governor  of  the  State.  His  Honor  the  Mayor  of 
Denver.  The  Press  of  Denver.  The  Legislature.  Lady  mem 
bers.  The  Chief  Justice. 

i.   The  Rocky  Mountains.     Colorado  Springs.     The  Canon 

WE  are  still  traveling  among  snow  and  are  slowly  scaling 
the  outlying  spurs  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  train  is 
hauled  and  pushed,  with  one  engine  in  front  and  one  behind. 
Gradually  it  becomes  hemmed  in  between  the  walls  of 
gloomy,  titanic  gorges  that  make  the  sky  seem  farther  off 
than  ever.  Deeper  and  narrower  they  become ;  one  after 
another  they  follow,  all  steeped  in  solitude  and  silence. 
Rocky  masses  hang  suspended  overhead  as  far  as  the  eye  can 
see.  On  Friday  morning,  April  15,  I  found  that  the  train 
had  squeezed  its  way,  under  cover  of  the  darkness  and  my 
ignorance  of  the  surroundings,  into  the  bottom  of  a  narrow 
precipice.  Yesterday  we  saw  the  gradual  growth  of  rivers 
that  were  as  yet  nothing  but  mountain  torrents ;  to-day 
we  are  at  their  birthplace.  Here  are  the  Colorado  and  the 
Rio  Grande,  great  rivers  that  I  have  seen  flowing  toward 
the  Gulf  of  California  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Here  I 

103 


IO4  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

find  them,  not  by  any  means  meek  —  on  the  contrary 
they  are  fierce  and  unruly  —  but  so  meager !  The  train 
makes  its  way  defiantly  up  their  course,  and  in  the  deep  and 
narrow  fissure,  or  canon,  where  the  struggle  goes  on, 
there  is  soon  no  room  for  anything  but  the  two  rivals, 
steam  and  water.  The  narrowed  torrent  leaps  up  in 
revolt,  but  none  the  less  the  panting  train  makes  its  way. 
Let  but  a  fringe  of  rock  break  away  and  the  train  will  be 
squashed  like  a  caterpillar,  and  then  drowned.  Are  we 
to  pity  poor  humanity  ?  No ;  rather  let  us  admire  man's 
splendid  genius  that  nothing  can  turn  back  —  a  genius 
that  disciplines  the  very  powers  of  destruction  and  turns 
them  to  account.  How  much  longer  is  it  to  be  deprived 
of  the  means  of  action  that  we  lavish  on  the  barren  service 
of  war  ? 

Finally,  the  train  emerges  and  straightens  itself  out  in  full 
daylight.  It  has  reached  the  point  that  dominates  both 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  slopes,  higher  than  the  snow  line, 
10,200  feet  above  sea  level.  From  this  point  of  vantage 
I  greet  an  apparent  chaos  of  mountains.  It  is  an 
inexhaustible  well-spring,  a  source  of  sources,  the  birth 
place  of  rivers  that  make  their  way  toward  the  four  points 
of  the  compass  and  distribute  their  waters  to  the  west, 
east,  north  and  south,  fertilizing  the  plains  and  creating 
the  wealth  of  an  entire  continent. 

The  descent  is  no  less  impressive  than  the  ascent.  It 
is  another  succession  of  gorges  and  canons,  especially 
the  latter.  Down  below  flows  the  Arkansas,  at  first  a 
brooklet,  then  a  torrent  and  finally  a  river,  a  tributary 
of  the  Mississippi.  But  now  the  train  and  river  are  no 
longer  in  conflict,  but  race  each  other.  They  follow  the 
same  slope  and  almost  the  same  path.  The  forces  of  man 
and  of  Nature  are  in  perfect  accord,  and  the  same  limpid 
water  that  supplies  steam  for  our  locomotive  marks  out  a 
path  beside  it  among  the  rocks. 


COLORADO  105 

The  grandeur,  the  majestic  lines  and  the  coloring  of 
these  rocks  exceeded  all  my  anticipations.  I  rather  mis 
trusted  Colorado  and  the  fanciful  and  highly  ornate  descrip 
tions  published  about  it  by  so  many  people  who  try  to 
embellish  what  they  describe.  But  I  was  wrong ;  what  I 
found  was  a  combination  of  strength  and  gracefulness,  of 
massiveness  and  of  lightness  —  an  impression  of  the  same 
kind  that  is  made  by  Rouen  Cathedral.  I  often  think  of  the 
man  who  should  be  the  one  painter  of  these  marvels, 
my  dear  friend  Claude  Monet,  who  was  ridiculed  because 
he  ventured  to  express  himself  sincerely  and  who  un 
fortunately  will  never  see  them  except  through  my  eyes. 

The  Cathedral  Spires 

At  the  bottom  of  the  gradient  I  arrive  at  the  health  resort 
of  Colorado  Springs,  the  Davos  of  the  United  States,  cele 
brated  for  its  numerous  cures.  Among  the  friends  awaiting 
me  I  find  some  former  consumptives,  now  quite  strong  and 
permanently  cured.  At  Colorado  Springs  I  confined  my 
self  to  observing.  I  was  the  guest  of  the  hard-working 
president  of  the  college,  Mr.  Slocum,  and,  from  the 
window  of  my  room,  I  was  never  tired  of  looking  at  the 
Rocky  Mountains  we  had  just  crossed  and  the  peaks 
standing  out  immaculate  in  white  against  the  blue  sky. 
Sheltered  by  this  magnificent  screen,  I  breathed  in  the  keen 
and  salubrious  air  under  a  burning  sun.  I  am  convinced 
that  without  the  cold  —  of  which  I  was  constantly  complain 
ing  during  the  greater  part  of  my  journey  in  these  suppos 
edly  hot  countries — I  should  not  have  been  able  to  endure 
the  fatigue  of  my  tour. 

As  my  lecture  did  not  take  place  until  the  evening,  after 
dinner,  I  had  my  afternoon  free  to  make  a  motor  trip 
along  some  of  the  brick-colored  tracks  connecting  the 
prairie  with  the  Rocky  Mountains,  I  thought  I  had  ex- 


106  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

hausted  my  capacity  for  admiration,  but  the  new  sight 
my  friends  had  prepared  for  me  was  not  in  the  least  like 
anything  I  had  expected.  They  took  me  to  the  "  Garden 
of  the  Gods."  At  the  right  hour  of  the  day,  when  the 
cliffs  and  peaks,  appropriately  called  "  Cathedral  Spires," 
rising  from  the  plain  as  if  by  magic,  are  lit  up  by  the  sun 
and  stand  out  red  against  the  sky. 

The  Prairie 

I  cannot,  moreover,  avoid  paying  my  tribute  of  admira 
tion  to  the  undulating  prairie  extending,  like  the  sea,  to  the 
horizon.  The  soft  tints  of  this  endless  plain,  that  shows 
pale  yellow,  pink  and  blue  in  the  distance,  contrast  with 
the  rich  and  vivid  coloring  of  the  mountains.  It  is  like  an 
ocean  spreading  out  before  me.  The  United  States  are 
bounded  on  the  east  and  west  by  the  Atlantic  and  the 
Pacific,  but  there  is  a  third  ocean  between  these  two- 
the  prairie.  The  great  snow-covered  heights  we  have  just 
crossed  are  the  western  shore  of  this  inland  ocean. 


The  Indians 

One  fixed  idea  has  pursued  me  during  my  long  journey 
through  all  these  different  states,  some  mere  deserts  and 
others  fertile,  some  arid  and  others  wooded.  Less  than 
fifty  years  ago  all  these  mountains,  gorges,  valleys  and 
plains  were  inhabited.  Peoples  of  incomparable  vigor 
and  of  a  very  fine  type,  almost  white,  lived  here  by  violence 
and  warfare,  and  might  very  well  have  thought  themselves 
invincible  and  beyond  the  reach  of  outside  intervention. 
Being  without  organization,  the  weaker  called  in  the 
assistance  of  the  whites  to  shake  off  the  oppression  of  the 
stronger.  Determined  as  they  were  to  slaughter  one 
another,  the  Indians  have,  so  to  speak,  vanished  with 


COLORADO  107 

great  rapidity.  "Only  thirty-five  years  ago,"  one  of  my 
friends  told  me,  "the  Indians  encamped  on  the  plain  where 
our  university  is  built.  Every  day  and  every  night  we  were 
in  danger  of  being  waylaid  and  murdered."  Another  man, 
not  very  old  and  still  quite  active,  told  me  he  had  crossed 
the  prairie  in  a  caravan  thirteen  times  from  the  eastward 
as  far  as  Denver,  which  was  then  half  a  town  and  half  an 
Indian  camp.  The  journey  took  days  and  days  and  was 
not  without  danger.  For  food,  the  travelers  shot  a  buffalo 
or  an  antelope  and  left  the  carcass  lying  where  it  fell  after 
having  cut  off  and  broiled  a  part  of  it.  At  night  they  took 
turns  guarding  the  camp  or  wagon,  watching  their  baggage 
and  especially  their  horses.  The  Indian  lay  in  wait  for 
the  white  man  and  attacked  him  when  he  could.  The 
illustrated  papers  of  "  Easter  Saturday  "  are  full  of  recollec 
tions  of  this  kind.  I  bought  one  of  them  which  represents, 
with  that  prodigality  of  the  American  press,  in  which 
advertisements  and  pictures  occupy  so  much  space,  a 
classic  scene  of  this  period,  which  is  so  close  and  which  seems 
so  prehistoric.  It  was  in  1875,  on  the  very  ground  where 
the  long  tennis  courts  of  Colorado  Springs  now  stretch 
out  their  well-laid  rectangles.  A  young  colonist  and  his 
bride  sought  the  solitudes.  He,  entirely  at  his  ease,  did 
not  perceive  the  tomahawk  which  the  powerful  Indian, 
ambushed  in  the  tall  grass,  was  about  to  throw  at  him.  He 
was  doomed,  and  what  of  the  girl  ?  What  tortures  were  in 
store  for  her?  Only  thirty-five  years  ago,  the  nomad 
Indian  looked  upon  the  white  man  as  a  kind  of  game  that 
it  was  his  business  to  exterminate,  while  the  white  man 
destroyed  the  Indians  like  wild  beasts.  This  implacable 
conflict  was  not  what  was  contemplated  by  our  great 
pioneers  when  they  crossed  America  quite  alone,  from  the 
St.  Lawrence  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  succeeded  in 
making  themselves  liked,  and  obtaining  willing  help  and 
service. 


108  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Whose  fault  was  it?  The  question  is  a  complicated  one, 
and  the  Americans  are  not  alone  to  blame.  The  fact  is 
that  the  Indians  fell  victims  to  their  own  religion  of  warfare. 
Like  other  nations  I  have  had  opportunities  of  examining 
closely  in  Africa  and  Eastern  Europe,  they  raised  ignorance 
and  idleness  to  the  rank  of  nobility ;  their  only  ambition 
was  the  domination  of  the  weak.  Their  only  object  in 
life  was  to  fight  one  another.  They  despised  labor,  and 
they  succumbed  to  wasted  courage.  If  they  had  been 
better  guided  by  some  clear-sighted  elite,  they  might  have 
used  their  heroism  to  better  advantage.  There  are  plenty 
of  examples  of  equally  brave  and  picturesque  nations 
that  have  remained  alive  and  have  compelled  universal 
respect  by  their  steadfast  adherence  to  peace.  They 
have  sought  for,  and  won,  the  most  arduous  kind  of 
victory  —  the  victory  over  one's  self,  which  paves  the  way 
for  every  other.  The  Japanese,  for  instance,  have  for 
centuries  been  accumulating  forces  that  the  Indians  ex 
hausted,  and  when  the  time  of  danger  came,  these  accumu 
lated  reserves  were  instrumental  in  securing  a  triumph  over 
Europe  itself. 

I  have  been  constantly  endeavoring  to  place  these  teach 
ings  before  Americans  for  them  to  meditate  upon.  It  is 
a  fine  thing  to  die  for  one's  country  or  for  a  great  cause; 
but  to  die  so  as  not  to  work,  to  die  for  the  mere  pleasure  of 
fighting,  is  not  giving  one's  life,  but  losing  it.  This  is  not 
serving  one's  country,  but  rather  sacrificing  it. 

2.    The  State  University.     Easter  Sunday 

I  left  Colorado  Springs  on  a  radiant  spring  morning. 
The  whole  city  was  making  holiday.  From  every  house 
came  out  children  in  new  clothes,  on  the  occasion  of  Easter 
Sunday.  It  was  a  pretty  sight,  but  a  sad  one  for  a  traveler 
from  abroad. 


COLORADO 


Presided  over  by  the  Rocky  Mountains 

I  merely  went  through  Denver,  jumping  from  the  train 
into  a  street  car  to  go  to  the  university  at  Boulder,  where 
I  was  the  guest  of  President  James  H.  Baker.  I  was  to 
lecture  at  four  o'clock.  There  were  so  many  people  that 
the  great  hall  was  not  half  large  enough,  and  I  was  asked  to 
speak  outside.  How  could  I  refuse?  The  crowd,  regard 
less  of  burning  sunshine  and  a  cold  wind,  flowed  out  over 
the  grass  under  the  canopy  of  a  clear  sky,  and  I  spoke  from 
the  top  of  a  staircase  with  the  Rocky  Mountains  as  chair 
man.  Not  for  many  a  long  day  shall  I  forget  that  crowd 
of  attentive  listeners  with  their  expressive  faces,  in  such 
surroundings.  I  did  not  expect  such  an  Easter  Sunday. 
To  me  it  ended  like  a  festival.  I  expatiated  to  all  the  young 
people  before  me  on  the  beauty  of  their  future  and  the 
might  and  grandeur  of  a  country  that  could  set  an  exam 
ple  of  progress  and  justice.  I  expressed  my  confidence  in 
their  energy.  I  summarized  what  the  ancestors  of  the  French 
people  and  their  own  had  done  together  to  bequeath  a  free 
and  prosperous  country  to  them.  I  told  them  what  they, 
in  their  turn,  had  to  do,  and  I  showed  them  what  was 
wanting.  When  I  had  finished,  their  fathers  and  mothers 
came  forward,  like  the  young  men,  shook  hands  with 
me  and  thanked  me,  in  accordance  with  the  touching 
custom  followed  after  every  one  of  my  addresses,  in  all 
parts  of  the  United  States.  This  time  it  was  done  so  spon 
taneously  that  I  felt  impelled  to  say:  "I  felt  lonely  this 
morning,  but  now  I  have  a  family  about  me."  After 
the  others  came  a  young  man,  who  said  timidly,  almost 
trying  to  run  away  as  he  did  so:  "  Thanks  for  what  you 
said;  I  needed  it!  " 

I  keep  these  words  in  the  bottom  of  my  heart  as  an  ex 
pression  of  the  sentiment  that  instinctively  attracted  me 
to  the  United  States.  These  young  men  indeed  need  to  be 


IIO  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

told  of  something  beside  conquests  and  the  glory  of  brute 
force;  they  need  to  have  the  patriotism  of  labor  and 
patience  held  up  to  them ;  they  need  to  have  the  heroism 
of  the  aviator,  of  the  inventor,  of  the  pioneer,  of  the  scientist, 
of  the  artist  who  refuses  to  sacrifice  his  ideal  to  routine 
and  the  heroism  of  those  who  have  devoted  themselves 
to  the  service  of  humanity,  exalted  before  their  eyes.  They 
need  to  be  warned  against  the  innumerable  causes  of  error 
that  lie  in  wait  for  them,  and  to  be  shown  the  beauty  of 
life  that  they  can  devote  to  making  themselves  useful  and 
loved  instead  of  feared. 

I  devoted  this  Easter  Sunday  to  paying  the  homage  our 
two  nations  owe  to  the  noble  souvenirs  they  have  in  com 
mon.  I  addressed  this  American  audience  on  behalf  of 
the  thousands  of  unknown  or  misunderstood  Frenchmen 
who  lived  the  heroic  life,  —  on  behalf  of  Cartier,  Cham- 
plain,  Marquette,  La  Salle,  Lafayette,  Rochambeau, 
Dupleix,  de  Lesseps,  on  behalf  of  all  the  noble  hearts  who 
scattered  the  sacred  seed  of  their  enthusiasm  to  the  four 
winds  of  heaven. 

3.  Denver 

After  my  visit  to  the  university  I  returned,  happy  at  be 
ing  alone  again,  to  Denver  to  sleep.  Next  day  I  was  the 
guest  of  the  chamber  of  commerce  as  well  as  of  the  Sons 
and  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution.  I  spoke  all 
day. 

Lecturing  in  English 

I  should  like  to  take  this  opportunity  of  disclaiming 
the  too  flattering  opinions  of  some  of  my  friends  with  regard 
to  my  knowledge  of  the  English  language.  I  speak  fairly 
fluently,  as  I  have  spoken  Greek  and  Italian,  for  the  good 
of  my  cause,  but  without  in  the  least  pretending  to  superior 
knowledge,  and  not  so  well  as  many  of  my  friends  who  are 


COLORADO  III 

more  timid  or  less  practiced  than  myself.  To  convince  an 
audience  and  make  simple  ideas  penetrate  into  its  conscious 
ness,  it  is  a  good  thing  not  to  have  a  too  abundant  vocabu 
lary.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  repeat  the  same  word  when  it  is 
the  right  one,  and  it  is  an  especially  good  thing  not  to  convey 
the  impression  of  being  a  mere  rhetorician.  The  anatomy 
of  the  idea,  and  not  the  language  in  which  it  is  clothed, 
is  what  makes  the  impression.  The  more  brilliant  and 
sumptuous  this  clothing  is,  the  more  it  is  apt  to  make  the 
listener's  mind  wander  and  excite  his  mistrust.  The  speaker 
scores  a  success,  but  the  effect  is  less  lasting. 

Sons  and  Daughters  of  the  Revolution 

I  accomplished  a  miracle  at  Denver,  according  to  the 
Colorado  newspapers.  It  was  an  easy  kind  of  miracle, 
seeing  that  I  knew  nothing  about  it.  I  restored  peace 
between  two  rival  bodies,  the  Sons  and  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution.  They  united  to  receive  me  and  gave 
a  very  fine  banquet  in  honor  of  France. 

These  societies  exist  in  many  cities  of  the  United  States 
and  have  considerable  influence.  Americans  are  proud  of 
their  national  origin  and  celebrate  it  with  youthful  fervor. 

So  far  from  taking  no  interest  in  these  demonstrations, 
American  women  preponderate  in  them.  Our  out-of-date 
expression,  "the  weaker  sex,"  certainly  does  not  apply 
to  them.  They  have  been  spared  the  fate  of  European 
women,  whose  place,  for  a  very  long  time,  was  with  the 
children,  and  who,  when  conquering  armies  marched 
through  the  country,  were  nothing  but  a  luxury  or  a  burden. 
Women  took  part  in  the  creation  of  the  United  States  and 
the  war  of  independence.  To-day,  being  fully  conscious 
of  the  obscure  but  all  the  greater  share  taken  by  their 
female  ancestors  in  the  colonization  of  the  New  World 
and  in  all  the  great  national  crises  that  have  arisen,  they  are 


112  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

openly  patriotic;    they  air  their  opinions  and  take  part 
in  public  affairs. 

Nowhere  was  action  of  this  kind  more  necessary  than  at 
Denver,  and,  in  fact,  in  all  new  centers  that  have  sprung  up 
so  quickly  as  to  leave  no  time  for  a  moral  rule  to  be  insti 
tuted  together  with  material  arrangements.  People  had  to 
make  sure  of  their  living  first  of  all,  group  themselves  to 
gether  in  a  hurry,  build  railroads,  put  up  electric  wires, 
plan  streets,  provide  for  water,  food  and  light,  construct 
houses,  stores,  clubs,  schools,  churches,  banks  and  hotels, 
organize  their  post  offices,  police  and  local  government  and, 
in  short,  found  their  city;  after  which  they  had  time  to 
look  around  and  begin  to  educate  the  public  mind.  This 
is  the  law  that  every  colony  has  to  obey.  We  must  not 
forget  that  Denver  did  not  exist  at  all  sixty  years  ago  and 
that  it  now  has  a  population  of  over  two  hundred  thou 
sand.  We  should  have  to  carry  injustice  to  the  verge  of 
foolishness  not  to  give  the  United  States  due  credit  for  the 
marvelous  cities  that  have  been  built  up.  I  am  filled  with 
admiration  for  the  amount  of  good  order  that  prevails, 
combined  with  very  high  aspirations,  in  all  these  im 
provised  capitals. 

Follow  the  Flag 

The  banquet  was  largely  attended.  It  was  more  than  cor 
dial,  fraternal.  Americans  greet  a  guest  as  if  they  were  under 
an  obligation  to  him.  With  them  he  is  indeed  welcome. 
I  sat  next  to  the  president  of  the  Daughters,  an  agreeable 
and  distinguished  woman,  whom  nobody  could  call  "  provin 
cial."  We  discussed  the  future  of  her  association  and,  nec 
essarily,  the  future  of  her  country,  the  two  being  inseparable. 
She  showed  an  ardent  and  patriotic  desire  for  peace,  know 
ing  that  peace  alone  can  insure  prosperity  and  strength 
to  the  United  States,  but  she  was  not  afraid  of  war.  The 
three  colors  of  the  French  and  American  flags,  with  which 


COLORADO  113 

the  hall  was  decorated,  were  a  symbol,  both  for  her  and  for 
me,  of  any  just  and  productive  revolt  against  oppression, 
and  she  readily  indorsed  the  proposition,  on  which  I  based 
my  remarks,  that  we  should  be  patriotic  and  follow  the  flag. 

Have  the  Flag  in  Good  Hands 

My  answer  was  this :  yes,  we  have  to  follow  the  flag ; 
let  us  be  patriotic ;  without  nations  there  can  be  no  in 
ternational  cooperation,  no  peace;  the  essential  condition 
of  peace  is  a  good  national  organization  in  all  countries. 
We  do  not  propose  to  relapse  into  the  Sioux,  Huron,  Apache 
and  Iroquois  stage ;  no  nation  is  more  patriotic  than  the 
French ;  but  the  more  a  nation  follows  its  flag,  the  more 
necessary  it  is  that  the  flag  should  be  in  good  hands,  and 
this  is  where  we  see  that  a  national  education  is  indis 
pensable  to  every  civilized  nation.  It  is  quite  as  necessary 
to  Americans  as  to  others,  if  not  more  necessary,  because, 
unlike  many  others,  they  have  not  been  taught  by  bitter 
experience.  American  women  can  do  a  great  deal  to  further 
this  education  in  their  own  country.  They  can  keep  on 
the  lookout  to  moderate  the  impulses  of  public  opinion  and 
muzzle  the  irresponsible  alarmists  who  excite  the  crowd, 
the  press  and  public  opinion  and,  through  that  opinion, 
the  government. 

Level-headed  as  he  may  be,  as  well  as  his  friends,  a 
President  of  the  United  States  will  be,  some  day  (and  he 
has  been  already),  unable  to  hold  out  in  times  of  panic, 
if  public  opinion  is  not  prepared  to  support  him. 

In  saying  this,  I  feel  I  am  voicing  a  sentiment  I  have 
often  heard  expressed.  At  the  University  of  California, 
for  instance,  before  a  crowded  audience,  the  president, 
Mr.  Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler,  —  a  well-read,  cultivated  man 
and  an  ardent  patriot,  —  introduced  me  to  his  students, 
nearly  a  thousand  young  men  and  women  from  eighteen 


114  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

to  twenty- two,  in  these  words:  " Educate  yourselves,  so 
that  future  generations  may  avoid  the  wars  that  past 
generations  might  have  avoided.  The  United  States  have 
hitherto  had  only  three  foreign  wars  :  with  England  in  1812, 
with  Mexico  and  recently  with  Spain,  and  all  three  might 
have  been  averted. " 

It  ended  to  their  advantage,  but  they  ran  serious  risks. 
We  all  know  that  Americans  are  brave,  but  so  are  Spaniards. 
If  the  latter  had  been  better  prepared  and  their  sailors 
had  not  been  handicapped  by  lack  of  ammunition ;  if  they 
had  had  a  defensive  organization  in  Cuban  waters  and  the 
merest  apology  for  submarine  defenses,  would  the  Americans 
have  been  found  ready,  or  could  they  have  been  ready? 
We  must  admit  that  they  could  not,  if  we  face  the  actual 
facts  and  decline  to  be  put  off  with  talk. 

This  unnecessary  war  might  therefore  have  been  a  disaster 
for  the  development  of  the  United  States.  In  any  case  it 
cost  the  country  thousands  of  young  men,  the  flower  of 
its  manhood,  who  sacrificed  their  lives  in  vain  —  lives  that 
were  quite  as  necessary  for  the  prosperity  as  for  the  glory 
of  their  country. 

A  Cornet  Solo 

Those  American  women  who  try  to  prevent  a  renewal  of 
similar  mistakes  are  patriots,  but  it  must  be  admitted  that 
they  are  infinitely  freer  than  European  women  to  undertake 
this  noble  task.  I  shall  have  many  occasions  to  mention 
instances  of  the  bold  way  in  which  American  women  take 
the  initiative.  One  of  them  occurred  at  this  very  banquet, 
and  I  commend  it  to  the  attention  of  the  "Parisienne." 
One  little  incident  may  mean  a  great  deal,  and  this  one 
shows,  better  perhaps  than  any  other  with  which  I  am 
acquainted,  the  immeasurable  self-confidence  with  which  the 
American  woman  faces  prejudice,  criticism  and  even  ridi 
cule,  and  ends  by  getting  the  public  on  her  side. 


COLORADO  115 

This  is  what  happened :  We  were  in  the  middle  of  the 
banquet,  at  the  time  when  the  sorbet  usually  comes  along. 
A  singer  had  just  given  us  Schumann's  " Marseillaise," 
followed  by  a  piece  specially  composed  for  the  occasion, 
"The  Prince  of  Peace,"  when  suddenly  we  heard  a  solo. 
It  was  so  full  of  sound  and  melody  and  so  faultless  that 
all  conversation  stopped.  It  was  a  cornet  solo.  I  listened, 
and  then  looked  to  see  what  nightingale  was  favoring  us 
with  its  trills  and  runs,  breathing  out  its  plaint,  and  invoking 
Heaven  with  its  hymn  of  praise.  The  nightingale  with  the 
cornet  was  a  woman  —  a  fair,  graceful  girl.  As  soon  as 
she  had  finished  I  got  up  at  once  and  shook  her  hand  with 
all  the  French  warmth  I  possess.  I  do  not  know  whether 
she  fully  understood  that  I  was  congratulating  her  even 
more  on  her  courage  than  on  her  talent.  The  audience 
was  wildly  enthusiastic  and  insisted  upon  an  "encore," 
which  was  even  better.  Never  before  had  I  seen  a  woman 
play  the  cornet.  She  was  a  complete  embodiment  of 
satisfaction,  expansiveness  and  absolute  self-confidence. 
She  struck  me  as  the  happiest  woman  in  the  United  States, 
and  no  doubt  she  was,  for  a  girl  must  be  exceptionally 
brave  and  good  to  make  up  her  mind  to  earn  her  living  so 
pluckily. 

Let  me  venture  to  suggest,  in  all  seriousness,  a  cornet 
cure  for  all  spoilt  children  and  neurotic  women. 

I  must  not  forget  that  before  going  to  this  revolutionizing 
banquet  I  was  present  at  a  no  less  memorable  luncheon 
which  the  Denver  Chamber  of  Commerce  had  long  ago 
arranged  to  give  during  my  visit. 

4.   The  Colorado  Chamber  of  Commerce.     Press  and  Leg 
islature.     The  Governor  of  the  State 

Everybody  knows  what  is  or  ought  to  be  the  business 
of  a  chamber  of  commerce.  It  is  intended  to  exhibit, 


Il6  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

to  the  best  advantage,  the  resources  it  places  before  its 
clientele.  I  realize  perfectly  that  the  innumerable  re 
ceptions  with  which  I  have  been  honored  by  all  kinds  of 
chambers  of  commerce,  in  all  the  countries  I  have  visited 
in  Europe  and  America,  have  been  principally  intended  to 
impress  me  with  the  superiority  of  each  chamber  over  all 
the  others.  Denver  did  things  in  ultra-American  style. 
They  gave  us  maps  of  the  United  States  showing  Denver  as 
a  center  of  dazzling  light,  with  all  the  rest  of  the  world 
in  shadow.  The  luncheon,  at  which  there  were  three 
or  four  hundred  guests,  was  delightful.  At  least  half  of 
them,  as  usual,  were  ladies.  There  were  also  farmers, 
engineers,  the  principal  officials  of  the  state,  the  bishop  (a 
very  intelligent  and  broad-minded  man)  and  so  on.  The 
governor,  Hon.  John  F.  Shafroth,  made  an  incisive  and 
witty  speech  in  the  easiest  and  simplest  style.  The  ap 
plause  with  which  it  was  received  ought  to  give  food  for 
reflection  to  the  megalomaniacs  in  Eastern  America,  and 
I  have  heard  the  same  argument  approved  time  after 
time. 

"If  it  is  true,"  he  said,  "that  we  must  spend  a  great  deal 
of  money  in  preparing  for  war  so  as  to  have  peace,  the 
United  States  have  been  uncommonly  lucky  up  to  now. 
Our  only  two  neighbors  are  Great  Britain,  who  used  to  be 
our  bitter  enemy  as  she  was  France's,  and  Mexico,  whom  we 
have  also  fought.  These  events  are  comparatively  recent, 
and,  according  to  the  great  modern  principles,  they  ought 
to  have  placed  us  in  a  record  state  of  insecurity  and 
obliged  us  to  spend  an  amount  of  money  proportionate  to  the 
extent  of  our  frontiers,  which  are  twenty  times  as  long  as 
those  of  any  European  state,  to  say  nothing  of  our  two  open 
coast  lines  and  our  exceptional  vulnerability  as  a  young 
and  thinly  populated  country.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  our 
ignorance  of  these  accepted  traditions,  we  have  managed 
to  get  along  for  a  century  without  spending  anything  on 


COLORADO  117 

frontier  defense.  That  frontier  has  not  been  defended  by 
a  single  ship  or  a  single  gun  for  a  hundred  years.  During 
all  that  time  we  have  been  saving  something  like  two  hun 
dred  million  dollars  a  year,  and  we  have  built  cities,  made 
harbors  and  created  a  place  for  ourselves  in  the  international 
market  and  the  world's  estimation.  The  experiment  has 
been  so  successful  that  we  are  now  proposing  an  unlimited 
arbitration  treaty  to  England.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  will 
simply  be  a  final  and  practical  application  of  our  traditional 
policy.  It  must  be  admitted  that  we  are  not  at  all  in  the 
fashion." 

His  Honor  the  Mayor  of  Denver 

This  elected  governor  of  Colorado  has  been  more  attacked 
by  the  newspapers  than  any  man  I  know  —  always  except 
ing,  of  course,  the  mayor  of  Denver,  because  any  one  who 
has  to  manage  a  great,  new  city,  almost  a  state  in  itself, 
has  to  satisfy  or  moderate  the  claims  of  a  great  many  hungry 
office  seekers,  and  is  bound  to  excite  a  great  deal  of  resent 
ment  and  bitterness.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  electoral  grati 
tude  slumbers,  while  the  discontented  make  all  the  noise. 
The  funniest  part  of  it  was  that  I  was  the  only  one  who  took 
these  signs  of  discontent  seriously.  They  are  the  salt  of 
public  life  in  Colorado. 

My  illusions  having  been  promptly  dispelled,  I  got  myself 
in  harmony  with  the  dominant  note  and,  encouraged  by 
the  general  good  humor,  I  replied  to  the  toasts  to  my 
health  by  developing  the  idea  that  we  must  suffer  in  order 
to  be  happy.  Wherever  I  find  people  with  a  large  share  of 
Fortune's  favor,  they  are  gloomy  and  full  of  complaints, 
whereas  poor  people  who  lead  hard  lives  are  cheerful  and 
sympathetic.  The  Englishman  who  had  too  many  society 
invitations  was  quite  right  when  he  said  that  life  would  be 
tolerable  but  for  its  pleasures  ;  he  might  have  added  that  it 
would  be  intolerable  but  for  its  difficulties.  Our  only 


Il8  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

merit  comes  from  the  obstacles  we  overcome.     Those  who 
oppose  us  are  really  our  best  friends. 

These  truths,  which  would  probably  be  considered  as  so 
many  paradoxes  in  old  Europe,  were  fortunate  enough  to 
delight  the  Denver  business  men  as  much  as  myself.  I 
have  seldom  seen  such  a  jolly  face  as  that  of  the  mayor  of 
Denver  or  heard  such  whole-hearted,  contagious  laughter. 
The  mere  sight  of  him  is  enough  to  make  one  develop  un 
expected  energy.  Before  I  met  him  I  was  rather  inclined 
to  pity  him.  Morning  and  afternoon  several  of  the  Denver 
papers  poured  torrents  of  abuse  and  personal  attacks, 
marked  by  refined  cruelty,  upon  him.  One  of  them  re 
ferred  to  him  as  "  His  Honor !"  in  big  capitals  as  if  he  had 
been  a  thief ;  and  as  for  the  caricatures  of  him,  they  were 
past  belief.  I  could  not  help  telling  him  how  I  sympathized 
with  him,  but  I  was  rather  taken  aback  when  he  laughed 
heartily  and  said :  "  Oh,  that  doesn't  amount  to  anything 
here." 

The  Press 

Here,  as  in  the  smaller  circle  of  my  own  experience,  I  see 
that  the  Press  ruins  its  influence  when  it  descends  to  vulgar 
personalities.  It  is  a  recommendation  for  a  man  to  be 
attacked  by  a  bad  newspaper.  Nevertheless,  the  Press 
can  still  do  a  great  amount  of  harm.  That  of  Denver  needs 
to  moderate  its  tone.  When  I  was  there,  it  was  always  out 
for  trouble  and  was  given  over  to  heated  arguments  and 
conflicts  of  all  kinds,  local,  national  and  international. 
The  public  will  eventually  tire  of  being  constantly  stirred 
up  in  this  way,  but,  in  the  meantime,  it  may  be  made  to 
lose  its  self-control  sufficiently  to  cause  some  irreparable 
calamity  to  grow  out  of  a  misunderstanding  or  a  mere 
falsehood. 

The  public  is  not  supplied  with  information  that  is 
sufficiently  correct  and  disinterested  to  protect  it  against 


COLORADO  119 

a  scare  kept  up  by  a  few  newspapers  in  combination  with 
a  stock-manipulating  coup.     This  is  the  danger  of  our  time. 

The  Legislature 

After  the  luncheon,  I  had  the  honor  of  being  received  at 
the  capitol  by  the  Colorado  Legislature.  I  began  by  paying 
a  visit  to  the  governor.  He  had  already  made  a  hurried  de 
parture  from  the  banquet  so  as  not  to  miss  any  of  his  visitors. 
All  day  long  his  office  door  is  open  to  everybody.  A  skep 
tical  negro  usher  lets  visitors  pell-mell  into  the  anteroom, 
where  they  wait  their  turn  —  electors,  officials  and  tax 
payers  all  together.  Here  an  exception  was  made  in  my 
favor.  I  asked  the  governor  the  same  question  that  I 
put  to  French  statesmen :  "  How  do  you  find  time  to  work  ?  " 
His  only  answer  was  a  vague  gesture,  and  he  hurried  me 
into  the  great  hall  where  the  Senate,  over  which  he  presides, 
and  the  lower  House  were  holding  a  joint  meeting  to  greet 
me.  On  the  way,  he  explained  the  general  plan  of  the 
building. 

The  capitol  is  magnificent.  All  the  mineral  wealth  of  a 
country  abounding  in  mines  and  valuable  quarries  has 
been  used  in  its  construction.  The  architects  wisely  chose 
the  site  on  high  ground  and  built  the  capitol  after  a  fine 
design  inspired,  as  usual,  by  classic  art.  They  made 
free  use  of  all  the  different  kinds  of  metal,  marble,  granite 
and  onyx  available.  Various  anthropological,  mineralog- 
ical  and  zoological  collections  are  fitted  up  in  the  basement, 
to  the  great  advantage  of  the  public,  giving,  as  they  do, 
immediate  information  to  the  traveler  as  to  the  history, 
the  formation  and  the  future  of  the  country.  All  over 
America  there  is  the  same  taste  for  museums  and  libraries. 
Their  statistical  departments  and  information  bureaus 
are  not  archives  only  open  to  the  few,  but  are  so 
much  practical  assistance,  available  for  every  one.  The 


120  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

collections  and  official  publications  of  all  the  United  States 
are  of  incalculable  value  to  agriculture.  Every  farmer  is 
provided  with  practical  information  as  to  his  crops,  the 
kind  of  stock  raising  suitable  to  his  locality,  the  best  plans 
to  be  found  in  the  world  for  housing  stock  and  the  best 
means  of  coping  with  drought,  frost  and  other  natural 
obstacles.  Without  this  advice  I  should  not  have  seen,  as 
I  did  from  the  train,  orchard  after  orchard  in  full  flower, 
lit  up  and  warmed  by  the  blaze  from  thousands  of  pe 
troleum  cans. 

My  first  impression  on  entering  the  Denver  capitol,  and 
looking  at  the  hall  in  which  my  colleagues  of  the  Colorado 
parliament  were  assembled,  was  very  different  from  what  I 
experienced  after  familiar  conversation  with  them.  The 
Americans,  though  they  are  always  trying  to  perfect  them 
selves,  are  still  in  their  infancy  as  regards  local  parlia 
mentary  institutions.  All  the  lack  of  restraint  I  have  seen 
here  will  have  vanished  in  less  than  ten  years  from  now. 
To  feel  sure  of  this,  one  need  only  look  at  the  marvels  that 
have  been  accomplished  in  so  short  a  time. 

As  every  one  knows,  each  of  the  forty-eight  states  has 
its  legislature,  its  senate  and  its  house  of  representatives. 
The  senators  are  elected  for  four  years  and  the  represen 
tatives  for  only  two  years.  All  are  elected  by  what  is 
practically  universal  suffrage.  The  senators,  being  less 
numerous  than  the  representatives,  are  elected  by  larger 
districts,  and  that  is  all  the  difference.  The  senate  and 
the  house  of  representatives  unite  to  elect  members  of 
the  United  States  senate,  two  for  each  state.1  On  the 
day  of  my  visit  it  happened  that  the  Colorado  Legislature 
had  to  appoint  a  United  States  senator,  and  although  the 
Democratic  party  had  a  considerable  majority  —  two 


system  has  been  altered.  The  members  of  the  Federal  Senate, 
by  a  recent  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  will  be  elected  by  universal 
suffrage. 


COLORADO  121 

thirds  of  the  voters  —  they  could  not  agree.  The  Demo 
crats  were  divided  into  two  equal  parts,  and  the  result  was 
to  split  the  Legislature  into  three  sections  and  make  it 
impossible  to  settle  the  matter. 

The  accommodation  provided  for  the  combined  sittings 
of  senators  and  representatives  is  very  good,  but  the 
sittings  themselves  are  so  badly  organized  that  it  is  im 
possible  to  arrive  at  satisfactory  results.  There  is  certainly 
a  lack  of  dignity  about  the  French  parliament,  when  it  is 
not  compared  with  a  good  many  others  that  are  still  worse, 
but  I  do  not  propose  to  give  my  Denver  colleagues  any  peace 
until  they  put  an  end  to  the  inconceivable  torture  they 
inflict  on  themselves  by  taking  the  spectators  into  their 
debates.  Without  exaggeration,  I  can  say  that  respect  for 
the  rights  of  the  elector  is  used  as  a  pretext  for  making  the 
elected  work  under  unacceptable  conditions.  It  is  impos- 
ible  to  estimate  the  extent  of  the  drawbacks  that  result 
from  this  state  of  things,  not  only  for  the  general  govern 
ment  of  the  country  and  indirectly  for  its  neighbors,  but 
also  for  the  parliamentary  system,  which  is  made  responsible 
for  the  abuses  forced  upon  it. 

Electors  are  admitted  to  the  hall  in  which  the  sitting  is 
going  on.  I  saw  some  walking  about  "with  women  and 
children,  or  sitting  along  the  wall  near  their  senator  or 
representative  to  see  what  he  was  doing.  The  newspaper 
men,  of  course,  had  a  splendid  time  in  this  scene  of  disorder. 
They  could  give  our  cabinet  attaches  points.  They  walk 
about  from  one  bench  to  another  and  go  up  and  speak  to 
the  president.  The  vials  of  their  wrath  are  ready  to  be 
poured  out  on  the  head  of  any  one  who  is  innocent  enough 
to  stand  in  their  way. 

The  members  of  the  Legislature  themselves  do  like  the 
rest.  They  take  things  easily,  smoke  and  lean  back  in  their 
chairs  with  their  feet  on  their  desks.  Shades  of  great 
debates  in  the  British  and  French  parliaments,  how  dim 


122  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

and  far  away  you  seem  !  The  example  set  by  the  members 
is  followed  by  the  officials,  including  the  "cheeky"  boys 
employed  (to  save  money)  as  ushers.  Only  the  girl  stenog 
raphers  and  typewriters  behave  properly  and  are  always 
ready  for  any  member  who  wants  to  dictate  a  letter.  The 
finest  specimen  of  disregard  for  appearances  was  the  prin 
cipal  secretary.  This  excellent  man  walked  about  in  his 
shirt  sleeves  with  a  pipe  in  his  mouth. 

Lady  Members 

I  managed  to  conceal  my  astonishment  and  begin  my 
address,  but  I  had  to  break  off  at  the  very  beginning.  I 
began  by  saying  "My  dear  colleagues"  and  I  was  about  to 
add  "Gentlemen"  when  I  perceived  four  lady  members, 
elected  to  the  house  of  representatives,  sitting  opposite 
me.  I  stopped  short,  and  resumed  :  "My  dear  colleagues, 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  this  is  the  first  time  that  a  member 
of  the  French  parliament  has  had  to  say  'ladies'  at  the 
commencement  of  an  address  to  foreign  colleagues.  This 
in  itself  is  a  revolution." 

These  opening  remarks  were  very  warmly  received,  and 
the  rest  of  the  address  may  be  imagined.  Afterward  I 
went  into  the  body  of  the  hall,  like  an  ordinary  American 
elector,  and  introduced  myself  to  my  feminine  colleagues. 
Here  again  I  had  to  get  rid  of  my  European  prejudices. 
The  conversation  caused  me  pleasure  and  even  emotion. 
One  of  the  ladies  was  a  farmer  and  managed  a  large  butter 
and  cream  concern.  She  represented  the  country  Republi 
can  interest.  Another  was  a  Democrat  who  had  been 
reflected  three  times.  She  was  a  widow  and  had  lost  her 
son  in  the  war  with  Spain.  She  was  a  city  member  and 
was  intensely  interested  in  educational  questions.  She 
introduced  me  to  the  school  superintendent,  a  very  pretty 
woman  who  spoke  with  such  seriousness  and  was  so  evi- 


COLORADO  123 

dently  impressed  by  the  importance  of  her  duties  that  I 
could  only  look  and  listen  with  equal  surprise. 

When  I  talked  as  long  as  possible,  the  president  amicibly 
notified  me  that  it  was  time  to  leave,  as  the  sitting  was  to 
continue  with  closed  doors,  whereby  I  learned  that  my  un 
fortunate  colleagues  were  at  any  rate  allowed  some  breath 
ing  time.  Meeting  the  ladies  again  soon  afterwards,  I 
could  not  help  asking  them  how  they  could  endure  their 
male  colleagues'  habit  of  smoking  and  putting  their  feet  up. 
They  looked  at  me  in  mild  surprise  at  my  innocence,  and 
replied:  "We  must  give  the  men  some  liberty  if  we  are 
to  get  anything  out  of  them!''  after  which  they  showed 
me  a  long  list  of  useful  measures  passed  into  law  through 
their  influence. 

The  Chief  Justice 

Before  leaving  the  capitol,  which  is  the  headquarters  of  the 
judicial  as  well  as  of  the  executive  and  legislative  authority, 
I  asked  permission  to  pay  my  respects  to  the  head  of  the 
Supreme  Court ;  and  here  again  I  had  to  get  rid  of  another 
set  of  preconceived  ideas.  I  wondered  what  sort  of  man  an 
elected  judge  was  likely  to  be  in  such  surroundings.  I  had 
been  surprised  to  find  so  much  solid  worth,  sincerity  and 
talent  in  the  governor,  and  I  was  prepared  to  find  less  to 
approve  of  in  a  magistrate  elected  by  universal  suffrage  —  a 
new  idea  for  me.  The  governor  took  me  to  a  very  quiet, 
British-looking  study  that  reminded  me  of  some  peaceful 
retreat  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  A  man  of  very  gentle 
and  refined  manners  rose  and  came  to  meet  me.  We  had 
a  long  conversation.  He  has  been  Chief  Justice  for  ten 
years  and  is  invariably  reflected  and  respected.  On 
asking  how  such  a  state  of  things  came  to  be  possible,  I 
was  told  that  it  was  simple  enough.  Each  party  is  respon 
sible  for  its  candidates,  and  when  one  of  them  proves 
unequal  to  his  position,  his  party  has  to  suffer  for  it. 


124  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

An  interesting  detail  is  that  the  Chief  Justice  became 
deaf  and  was  on  the  point  of  giving  up  office  because 
he  could  hear  neither  witnesses  nor  counsel.  Thanks  to  a 
marvelous  little  electric  machine,  connected  by  two  wires 
to  a  sort  of  headpiece,  —  which  he  put  on,  with  apologies, 
when  I  entered  his  room,  —  he  can  now  hear  as  well  as 
anybody,  and  better  than  a  great  many  people. 

I  shall  certainly  be  sorry  to  leave  Denver.  It  fortifies 
one's  confidence  in  humanity. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   INEVITABLE   WAR 

i.  JAPAN  PREMEDITATING  WAR  ?  Let  us  study  the  danger.  A  soap 
bubble. —  2.  THE  WORST  HYPOTHESES.  A.  The  United  States 
attack  Japan.  B.  Japan  attacks  the  United  States.  —  3.  THE 
EMPIRE  or  THE  OCEAN  :  AN  ANACHRONIC  DREAM. 

i.  Japan  Premeditating  War? 

I  SAID  that  I  had  hardly  landed  in  New  York  when  people 
began  to  say  to  me:  "You  have  chosen  a  fine  time  for 
your  visit!  we  are  about  to  have  war  between  the  United 
States  and  Mexico  ! "  I  went  on,  and  I  came  back  with  the 
firm  conviction  that,  whatever  might  be  the  difficulties  of 
the  future,  neither  the  government  nor  the  people  of  the 
United  States  would  ever  commit  the  folly  of  declaring  war 
against  their  Mexican  neighbors.  (I  will  not  repeat  what 
I  said  in  Chapter  II  about  that.) 

But  the  pessimists  insisted  and,  explaining  confidentially 
and  patriotically  to  me  that  the  real  danger  was  not  Mexico 
but  Japan,  they  added :  Japanese  people  are  very  patient, 
they  have  been  premeditating  and  they  are  preparing  their 
war,  their  coup,  what  we  call  now  the  attaque  brusquee. 
They  have  their  numerous  agents,  their  spies  everywhere 
in  Mexico  as  in  California  or  in  the  Hawaiian  islands; 
their  trap  is  laid  just  now  on  the  Mexican  frontier,  but  it 
is  in  Tokio  that  the  inevitable  danger  is  lying. 

Let  us  Study  the  Danger 

Very  well !  we  accept  this  dramatic  warning.  In  order  to 
take  it  seriously,  let  us  study  at  first  hand  the  specter  which 

125 


126  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

is  held  up  to  terrify  us  :  in  order  to  understand  it  better,  let 
us  visit  the  places  which  should  show  the  danger  most 
clearly  —  Arizona,  California,  Oregon,  Utah  and  Colorado. 
In  these  the  Japanese  are  relatively  the  most  numerous. 
Here  national  unrest  and  susceptibility  might  well  be 
aroused,  as  the  Japanese  are  found  in  larger  and  larger 
numbers  in  the  universities,  in  the  hotels,  learning  English, 
traveling  about  and  studying  the  United  States.  It  is 
true  that  the  Japanese  government,  far  from  encouraging 
emigration,  as  is  generally  supposed,  is  working  in  the  oppo 
site  direction  and  placing  great  obstacles  in  its  path. 
Every  emigrant  is  subjected,  to  the  most  rigorous  tests,  and 
the  departure  of  farm  hands  and  laborers  —  in  a  word,  of 
the  least  educated  Japanese  —  is  specifically  forbidden. 
Japan  does  not  wish  to  send  her  lower  classes  abroad.  It  is 
a  point  of  pride  with  her  to  permit  the  departure  of  those 
citizens  only  who  are  capable  of  doing  her  honor  and  of 
profiting  by  their  travels.  The  educated  young  men, 
graduates  of  her  universities,  who  travel  abroad  are,  as 
is  the  case  in  Germany,  happily  excused  from  compulsory 
military  service  on  the  condition  of  having  had  at  least 
thirteen  years  of  schooling  and  of  having  passed  all  their 
examinations  in  military  proficiency,  and  in  general  having 
shown  themselves  capable  of  success  in  life. 

This  explains  the  relatively  slight  immigration  of  Japanese 
into  the  United  States.  It  is  none  the  less  true  that  the 
young  Japanese  who  do  come  might  well  be  objects  of 
suspicion  to  the  Americans,  who  are  daily  incited  against 
them  by  a  section  of  the  Press.  This,  however,  is  not  the 
case  in  the  universities,  where  they  are  treated  as  comrades, 
and  where,  if  they  are  poor,  they  are  given  the  same  oppor 
tunities  for  self-support  as  are  open  to  American  students. 
More  than  once  I  have  seen  young  Japanese  in  the  house 
hold  service  of  university  presidents  and  professors.  Out 
side  of  the  universities  and  hotels,  you  see  them  on  every 


THE  INEVITABLE   WAR  127 

hand,  serious,  thoughtful,  obviously  above  their  present 
temporary  occupations.  It  would  not  be  hard  to  imagine 
that  they  are  spies.  This  is  more  than  enough  to  form  the 
basis  for  irritation  and  suspicion  of  their  presence  in  the 
United  States.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  came  to  study 
the  question  at  first  hand  rather  than  from  books. 

As  I  came  into  occasional  relation  and  into  intimate  and 
confidential  touch  with  those  who  are  in  a  position  to  give 
me  light,  as  in  Texas,  I  did  not  hesitate  to  ask  questions.  I 
exposed  my  convictions  and  observations  to  daily  tests  by 
the  public  and  the  Press.  In  every  one  of  my  lectures  I 
set  forth  impartially  the  two  points  of  view,  that  of  the 
alarmists  and  the  opposite.  I  discussed  the  question  under 
the  most  diverse  circumstances,  in  personal  chats  and  be 
fore  large  audiences  in  public  meetings  widely  heralded  in 
the  daily  papers.  I  have  addressed  men  of  affairs,  teachers, 
labor  organizations  and  students.  My  lectures  have 
been  in  colleges,  churches,  clubs,  before  chambers  of  com 
merce,  state  governors  and  legislatures.  The  more  im 
portant  papers  have  published  my  arguments  and  given 
every  opportunity  to  any  one  who,  in  the  interests  of  his 
country  or  in  the  interests  of  truth,  might  desire  to  make 
an  effective  reply  to  them.  I  do  not  think  that  I  lost  a 
single  opportunity  of  bringing  to  light  whatever  of  truth 
there  might  be  in  the  United  States  regarding  this  legend  of 
the  Japanese  peril ;  and  now,  as  I  bring  to  an  end  my 
long  campaign  through  the  Far  West,  I  can  conscientiously 
state  that  I  have  not  found  a  single  serious  trace  of  alarm. 

A  Soap  Bubble 

I  have,  indeed,  in  a  few  rare  cases,  in  fragmentary  after- 
dinner  conversations,  heard  transient  notes  of  agitation 
and  alarm,  but  alarm  about  what  ?  About  everything : 
yesterday,  Mexico  ;  to-day,  Japan ;  to-morrow,  Germany. 


128  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

For  the  alarmists  have  turned  their  attention,  for  the  mo 
ment,  from  Japan  to  Germany.  As  I  passed  through  Denver 
my  eye  was  caught  by  the  huge,  sensational  headlines  about 
the  "next  war  of  the  United  States,"  no  longer  with  Japan, 
but  with  Germany.  To-day  it  is  Germany  which  is  to 
seize  Mexico ;  Germany  guided  by  the  signally  successful 
experience  there  of  my  own  country ! 

All  this  proves  how  little  reliance  can  be  placed  in  these 
alarms  of  war.  If  no  one  takes  them  seriously,  they  fall 
of  their  own  weight.  I  have  more  than  once  compared  the 
talks  of  war  between  the  United  States  and  Japan  to  a  soap 
bubble.  If  one  wished,  the  bubble  could  be  burst  by  a 
cannon  shot,  but  who  would  wish  or  would  permit  that  shot 
to  be  fired?  The  possibility  of  a  war  between  Japan  and 
the  United  States  is  not  conceivable  unless  one  is  willing 
to  suppose  the  two  governments  equally  stupid,  the  two 
nations  equally  blind,  and  the  world  at  large  indifferent 
to  their  joint  absurdity. 

2.    The  Worst  Hypotheses.     A.  The   United  States  attack 

Japan 

Let  us  study  the  worst  hypotheses :  In  the  first  place, 
let  us  conceive  the  Uniteu  ,-jtates  attacking  Japan  and  being 
victorious  all  along  the  Hue,  by  sea  and  by  land.  As  we 
are  merely  supposing,  let  us  not  hesitate.  In  the  second 
place,  let  us  suppose  that  Japan,  on  the  contrary,  should 
attack  the  United  States,  and  that  her  triumph  by  sea,  on 
land  and,  as  has  been  sugge-  ,  in  the  upper  air,  should 
be  complete. 

Let  us  consider  the  first  case.  Can  we  conceive  such 
folly,  such  crime,  such  weakness,  such  incapacity  in  a 
government  which  would  repudiate  its  traditions,  its 
policy,  its  good  faith,  which  would  bring  its  own  develop 
ment  to  an  abrupt  close,  would  compromise  its  future  and 


THE  INEVITABLE   WAR  I2Q 

wreck  its  very  existence  for  the  sake  of  a  war  in  which, 
were  the  nation  victorious,  she  could  not  receive  any 
advantage  and  from  which  the  whole  world,  on  the  other 
hand,  can  to-day  foresee  disastrous  consequences?  One 
cannot  do  the  United  States  the  injustice  of  believing 
that,  after  having  given  to  the  world  the  example  and  the 
signal  of  vigorous  devotion  to  the  work  of  the  Hague  con 
ferences,  its  government  would  ever  take  such  a  step.  To 
argue  on  the  supposition  that  the  United  States  will  ever 
be  attacked  with  such  an  epileptic  seizure  is  to  assume  the 
suicide  of  a  great  nation  as  a  normal  happening. 

The  objection  would  be  made,  it  is  true,  that  some  acci 
dent  would  do  the  mischief :  a  second  Maine,  for  exam 
ple;  perhaps  an  American  admiral,  without  instructions 
and  on  his  own  responsibility,  might  see  fit  to  fire  upon  a 
Japanese  vessel  in  the  harbor  of  Manila  or  Honolulu ;  a 
single  premature  shot,  as  at  Navarino,  fired  against  orders, 
and  the  battle  would  be  on,  and  the  national  honor,  the 
national  flag,  would  be  at  stake.  Without  hesitation,  with 
out  reflection,  without  thought,  America  would  follow  her 
flag.  If  such  a  thing  could  be,  I  ask  what  more  terrible 
indictment  can  be  made  against  the  policy  of  a  huge  navy 
which,  not  content  with  employing  the  youthful  energy 
of  the  citizens,  is  shown  forth  in  a  time  of  peace  as  the  sole 
possible  cause  of  war.  Would  any  one  to-day  bring  up  as 
an  argument  in  favor  of  armaments  the  example  of  the 
Russian  fleet  on  its  way  to  China,  in  1904,  when  at  Dogger 
Bank  it  gave  excuse  for  a  war  with  England,  superadded 
to  the  one  which  Russia  was  then  waging  against  Japan? 
And  this  war  would  actually  have  taken  place  had  not  the 
two  governments,  fortunately  controlled  by  public  opinion, 
been  able  to  avoid  the  conflict  by  an  appeal  to  the  Hague 
conventions. 

An  attack  upon  Japan  by  the  United  States  under  pre 
tense  of  avoiding  an  imaginary  danger  would  have  no  other 


130  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

result  than  the  strengthening  of  Japan.  War  does  not 
change  geography.  No  victory  of  the  United  States  could 
result  in  the  shrinking  up  of  the  ocean !  A  defeated  Japan 
would  be  no  less  inaccessible  on  the  other  side  of  the  Pacific. 
Apparently  humiliated  by  the  American  triumph,  she  would 
be  raised  to  the  role  of  victim  and  later  to  that  of  avenger. 
She  would  grow  in  moral  strength,  both  in  her  own  eyes  and 
in  Asia  at  large.  She  would  become  a  champion  of  the 
right,  the  defender  of  the  yellow  race  against  the  white. 
The  solidarity  of  the  most  thickly  populated  continent 
of  the  world  would  give  her  the  opportunity  for  a  prompt, 
terrible  and  easy  revenge. 

B.   Japan  attacks  the  United  States 

A  victory  for  the  Americans  could  only  open  up  an  era  of 
endless  reprisals,  which  would  ultimately  bring  economic 
and  political  disaster  to  the  United  States.  Let  us  not 
press  the  question,  but  let  us  rather  turn  to  the  hypothesis 
of  a  more  or  less  artful  attack  upon  the  United  States  by 
Japan.  "You  have  seen,"  say  my  after-dinner  alarmists, 
"only  the  most  favorable  samples  of  the  Japanese.  The 
real  Japan  is  watching  her  chance  to  attack  the  United 
States.  She  also  has  her  own  Monroe  Doctrine,  'Asia 
for  the  Asiatics,'  and  she  will  carry  it  out.  That  is  her 
program,  her  aspiration,  her  only  raison  d'etre.  The 
outrages  committed  daily  upon  her  citizens  or  upon  other 
Asiatics,  not  only  in  California,  but  in  Australia  and  else 
where,  are  an  insupportable  humiliation,  to  Japan  a  daily 
slap  in  the  face.  Japan  says  nothing,  but  she  treasures 
them  up  in  her  memory;  she  accumulates  these  affronts; 
she  is  awaiting  her  chance ;  and  when  that  chance  comes, 
keep  your  powder  dry!  Her  army  and  her  navy  are  ani 
mated  with  religious  fervor,  they  are  well  disciplined  and 
have  the  tradition  of  success.  Even  supposing  that  the 


THE  INEVITABLE   WAR  13 1 

Japanese  Government  might  be  inclined  toward  peace, 
it  would  finally  be  overwhelmed  by  public  opinion  and 
sooner  or  later  obliged  to  give  way,  as  have  so  many  other 
governments  in  the  history  of  the  world,  to  the  war  fever 
spread  by  the  army  and  the  navy  throughout  the  country." 

Let  us  stop  for  an  instant  before  the  picture  of  Japanese 
patriotism  and  courage,  and  observe  in  passing  that  these 
same  alarmists  who  draw  Japan  as  the  most  ardent  and 
best  trained  of  all  the  military  states  are  the  very  same  who 
solemnly  state  that  peace  will  destroy  the  energy  of  a 
nation ;  for  it  is  through  centuries  of  peace  that  Japan  has 
steeped  her  courage  and  made  ready  her  resistance  to  the 
armies  and  navies  of  Europe.  But  let  us  go  back  to  our 
hypothesis.  Japan  has  seized  her  chance.  I  admit  that 
in  taking  possession  of  the  Philippines,  when  they  have  so 
much  to  do  at  home,  the  United  States  made  a  mistake. 
They  should  make  it  their  object  to-day  to  insure  as  soon 
as  possible,  under  the  guarantee  of  the  modern  progress  of 
international  law,  the  neutrality  of  this  too  distant  posses 
sion.  In  the  meantime  it  is  here,  as  the  alarmists  truly 
say,  and  in  the  Hawaiian  islands,  that  the  United  States 
are  vulnerable,  and  it  is  upon  these  that  Japan  has  her  eye. 
At  the  outset,  Japan,  thoroughly  informed  by  her  omnipres 
ent  spies,  seizes  the  Philippines — a  trifling  task  for  her — and 
the  Hawaiian  islands  with  their  80,000  resident  Japanese  — 
an  easier  task.  This  done,  she  presses  her  advantages. 
She  threatens  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  She  threatens  San 
Francisco.  She  seizes  the  spoils  of  war.  She  establishes 
Gibraltars  in  California  and  Mexico.  In  a  word,  she  be 
comes  the  mistress  of  the  Pacific,  the  mistress  of  half  the 
world,  neither  more  nor  less. 

The  vision  is  tempting  enough.  I  am  willing  to  believe 
that  among  the  Japanese  jingoes,  as  among  jingoes  every 
where,  it  is  easy  to  find  applause  for  such  a  program.  In 
France  we  know  this  kind  of  applause  only  too  well,  and 


132  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

what  Jules  Ferry  has  called ' '  Us  Saint  A  rnaud  de  cafe  concert.'' ' 
Imitations  of  these  wretched  caricatures  exist  in  every  land. 
Why,  indeed,  should  not  Pan-Japanism  have  its  votaries, 
like  Pan- Germanism,  Pan-Hellenism,  or  Pan-Islamism  ? 
But  uproar  is  not  a  political  program.  Let  us  imagine 
Japan  blind  enough  to  start  upon  this  career.  And  let 
us  imagine  her  with  enough  money.  Where  will  she  stop 
and  how  can  she  stop?  Let  us  suppose  that  in  due  time 
she  attacks  the  United  States.  In  spite  of  the  efforts  and 
the  resources  of  her  diplomacy,  no  matter  what  may  be  the 
situation  in  Europe,  she  will  in  so  doing  threaten  England, 
the  British  Empire.  No  secret  treaty,  no  mysterious 
clause,  has  weight  against  a  plain  fact  such  as  this,  against 
such  a  march  of  events.  To-day  the  treaty  does  not  exist 
which  would  hold  two  governments  against  the  will  of 
the  peoples  whom  they  represent. 

To  seize  the  Philippines  from  America  would  be  to  threaten 
the  British  settlements  in  Asia,  from  Singapore  to  Shanghai ; 
the  French,  from  Saigon  to  Hanoi ;  the  Russian,  from  Vladi 
vostok  to  Siberia ;  the  Dutch  in  Java  and  Sumatra ;  the 
German  colonial  possessions.1  It  would  threaten  the  in 
tegrity  of  Australia.  It  is  indeed  a  fine  program  which  we 
are  suggesting  for  Japanese  chauvinism,  a  program  well 
worthy  of  chauvinism  in  general.  Nor  would  Japan  find 
help  from  Asia  should  she  herself  be  the  aggressor.  If  she 
should  in  her  folly  set  herself  against  the  whole  world,  she 
would  find  that  her  influence  in  China,  now  maintained 
with  difficulty,  would  slip  away.  Her  victory  over  the 
United  States  would  spell  her  ruin.  Any  effort  to  monop 
olize  the  Pacific  Ocean,  any  absurd  and  untimely  return 
to  a  Napoleonic  dream  of  a  universal  blockade,  could  mean 
nothing  for  Japan  but  utter  disaster.  It  would  be  a  march 
to  the  abyss,  to  annihilation  and  not  to  mastery. 

1  Which  exist  no  more  as  German  possessions.     (March,  1915.) 


THE   INEVITABLE   WAR  133 

3.   The  Empire  of  the  Ocean  is  an  Anachronic  Dream 

In  our  own  interests,  we  must  all  see  that  the  empire  of  the 
ocean  is  to-day  but  an  idle  dream.  I  cannot  say  too  often 
that  no  single  state  can  possibly  be  the  mistress  of  the  sea. 
The  sea  belongs  to  the  world  at  large  just  as  the  heavens 
belong  to  aviation.  No  combination  of  diplomacy,  no 
bowlings  of  the  Press,  can  alter  facts.  War  between  the 
United  States  and  Japan  is  impossible.  Individual  acts 
of  folly  are  unpreventable,  just  as  are  assaults  and  murders 
in  every  country,  in  spite  of  the  arm  of  the  law.  The 
question  is  to  know  whether  we  have  to  organize  the  world 
under  a  normal  condition  of  justice  or  on  the  assumption 
that  murder  is  the  rule.1 

1  In  reality  the  only  war  truly  inevitable  is  one  which  the  governments 
believe  to  be  inevitable  —  a  war  for  which  they  prepare  under  the  pretext 
of  thereby  assuring  peace  !  The  present  European  war  could  have  been 
avoided  by  confidence  and  accord  between  the  great  Powers.  It  was 
rendered  inevitable  by  suspicion  and  by  the  increase  of  armaments. 
(March,  1915.) 


CHAPTER  VIII 

LINCOLN.       KANSAS   CITY 

i.  THE  CAPITAL  OF  NEBRASKA.  Life  on  board  of  the  American 
railways;  "staterooms, "cooking.  Lincoln  or  Omaha.  The  work  of 
militias.  Voluntary  discipline.  The  pacific  and  patriotic  doctrine. 
William  Jennings  Bryan.  The  Hague  capital  of  new  ideals.  Ameri 
can  disinterestedness.  France  sower  of  seed.  Alcoholism.  Paris 
and  pornography.  Too  many  dogs  and  cats.  Temperance.  — 
2.  ANOTHER  NEW  CITY.  Kansas  City.  Agricultural  center. 
Scarcity  of  labor.  The  938  school  teachers.  The  Press.  French 
horses.  The  automobiles  and  the  plucky  girls.  The  Park.  The 
Boulevards.  The  Missouri's  failure.  The  floods.  The  lady  who 
wants  to  know.  The  Knife  and  Fork  Club. 

I  MANAGED  to  extend  my  stay  at  Denver  by  twenty-four 
hours  and  shut  myself  up  in  my  room,  though  my  friends 
thought  I  had  gone.  I  was  so  saturated  with  impressions 
that  I  felt  the  need  of  shutting  out  everything  for  a  time. 
When  people  and  places  pass  before  our  eyes  too  quickly, 
our  vision  becomes  blurred,  questions  cease  to  state  them 
selves  plainly,  and  life  becomes  nothing  better  than  a  whirl 
ing  cinematograph.  In  addition  to  retirement,  which  is  often 
difficult  to  obtain  in  a  hotel,  I  enjoy  the  rest  on  the  trains. 

Life  on  Board  of  the  American  Railroads 

Heft  Denver  at  nine  o'clock  at  night,  but  remained  shut  up 
in  my  stateroom  or  cabin  until  next  day  at  noon.  These 
cabin  (staterooms)  are  all  alike,  and  in  every  one  of  them 
I  have  my  favorite  corner  and  arrange  things  after  my  own 
fashion.  I  make  myself  absolutely  at  home  and  let  nobody 

134 


LINCOLN.      KANSAS   CITY  135 

in,  —  not  even  the  colored  porter,  —  so  that  I  can  arrange 
my  plans  without  interference  and  put  my  mental  house 
in  order. 

Americans  burn  the  candle  at  both  ends.  They  are 
splendid  organizers  and  understand  everything  except  the 
value  of  lost  time !  Continually  busy  as  they  are  over 
smoothing  out  rough  places  and  overcoming  natural  ob 
stacles,  they  are  unacquainted  with  three  elements  which  are 
indispensable  to  happiness  and  success;  I  mean  silence, 
solitude  and  sadness.  Compare  their  intense  activity 
with  Russian  nonchalance,  for  instance,  and  tell  me  if  that 
apparent  nonchalance,  with  its  resigned  acceptance  of 
long  winters  and  long  nights,  does  not  bear  fruit  in  the 
shape  of  masterpieces  of  art  and  thought. 

I  have  found  something  reposeful  even  in  the  food  on  the 
American  dining  cars.  I  was  rather  alarmed  at  the  pros 
pect  of  several  months'  railroad  travel  and  especially  of  the 
cooking,  which,  to  a  Frenchman  born  with  a  cook's  palate, 
ought  to  have  time  and  care  given  to  it ;  but  I  was  mistaken. 
All  that  was  necessary  was  a  little  firmness.  The  ice,  pro 
vided  in  abundance  all  over  the  United  States,  also  helped 
a  great  deal.  It  is  a  surprise,  even  for  the  most  exacting 
stomachs,  to  find  plenty  of  fresh  cream,  in  the  South  as  well 
as  in  the  North.  It  is  served  as  milk  is  with  us,  but  more 
freely,  and  is  purer.  It  is  produced  at  every  meal,  as  are 
all  sorts  of  fruit,  such  as  grapefruit,  strawberries,  bananas, 
oranges  and  apples.  The  last-named,  being  easy  to  keep 
and  send  from  place  to  place,  are  becoming  the  national 
fruit  of  the  United  States.  The  luscious,  golden-brown, 
wrinkled,  baked  apple  can  be  had  in  every  dining  car  and 
railroad  restaurant,  and  its  hygienic  qualities  are  invaluable 
to  the  traveler.  Add  to  these,  plainly  cooked  vegetables 
which  are  necessarily  not  "  faked,"  such  as  potatoes  and  rice 
(the  negroes  cook  these  very  well),  plain  soups,  porridge  with 
cream,  chickens  (sometimes  young)  or  pigeons,  tea  and  ice- 


136  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

water,  with  very  little  wine,  this  being  a  country  producing 
scarcely  any,  and  you  have  a  diet  warranted  to  cause  not 
even  a  headache. 

Thus  restored  to  my  usual  serenity,  I  reached  Lincoln, 
the  young  capital  of  the  state  of  Nebraska. 

Lincoln  or  Omaha 

Lincoln  is  a  paradox.  I  do  not  yet  fully  understand  how 
it  comes  to  be  a  capital.  It  has  a  comparatively  small 
population,  about  30,000.  The  principal  city  in  Nebraska 
is  Omaha,  which  has  three  or  four  times  as  many  inhab 
itants  and  is  well  known  for  its  abattoirs  and  its  commercial 
wealth.  When  it  came  to  be  decided  which  city  should  be 
the  capital  of  Nebraska,  Lincoln  carried  the  day  by  a 
majority  of  only  one.  Since  that  time,  the  legislative, 
administrative  and  judicial  life  of  the  state  has  centered 
in  this  secondary  place,  just  as  Versailles,  at  a  time,  was 
preferred  to  Paris,  Springfield  to  Chicago,  Baton-Rouge  to 
New  Orleans  and  so  on. 

The  Work  of  the  Militia 

I  saw  militia  —  the  embryo  of  the  national  army  which 
is  lacking  in  the  United  States  —  for  the  first  time  at 
Lincoln.  They  were  a  very  manly  lot.  Most  of  the  young 
fellows  belonged  to  the  state  university  at  which  I  spoke. 
They  wore  smart  uniforms  and  carried  out  various  move 
ments  under  the  command  of  a  young  captain.  This  officer 
greeted  me  very  courteously  and  cordially,  and  spontane 
ously  declared  himself  a  strong  supporter  of  arbitration 
and  peace.  "Our  drill,"  he  said,  "is  a  form  of  training 
necessary,  not  only  for  national  defense,  but  for  strengthen 
ing  our  unity.  Most  of  the  boys  in  our  schools  are  the  sons 
of  foreign  fathers  and  mothers.  They  were  away  with 


LINCOLN.      KANSAS   CITY  137 

their  parents  on  farms  where  they  did  not  speak  English 
but  here  they  learn  to  live  together,  speak  the  same  lan 
guage  and  become  part  of  a  people  which  will  be  great  if 
it  is  united  but  a  failure  if  it  is  divided  against  itself.  In 
combination  with  the  universities  and  athletic  sports,  our 
budding  militia  are  schools  for  voluntary  discipline  and 
union.  For  these  reasons  we  cordially  approve  of  your 
endeavors  to  spread  a  uniform  doctrine  of  patriotism  and 
peace  throughout  our  country,  and  you  can  count  us  among 
your  sincerest  supporters." 

Pacific  and  Patriotic  Doctrine 

I  replied  that  the  French  were  obliged  by  their  past  and 
by  the  present  state  of  Europe  to  regulate  their  military 
organization  more  or  less  by  that  of  their  neighbors,  but 
that  nowhere  was  there  a  better  comprehension  of  the 
double  duty  of  defending  to  the  uttermost  not  only  the 
fatherland  but  right  and  justice,  without  which  peace, 
constantly  threatened  as  it  is,  would  be  a  mere  mockery. 
"  Show  Europe,"  I  added,  "  that  you  love  peace  just  as  much 
as  your  country,  and  no  one  will  dream  of  attacking  you. 
You  will  become  invulnerable,  and  your  example  will  make 
any  revival  of  the  old-style  war  of  conquest  impossible. 
The  good  organization  of  the  United  States  is  one  of  the 
conditions  of  universal  peace." 

These  sentiments,  which  are  understood  everywhere,  are 
those  of  every  state  in  the  Union.  I  have  expressed  them, 
in  different  forms,  before  over  a  hundred  audiences,  and 
particularly  to  young  people.  I  have,  in  fact,  addressed  a 
nation. 

William  Jennings  Bryan 

My  route  being  strictly  mapped  out,  I  could  not  be  at 
Lincoln  at  the  same  time  as  my  friend  William  Jennings 


138  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

Bryan.  He  was  kind  enough  to  join  me  a  little  farther  on> 
at  Chicago,  but  I  was  very  sorry  to  miss  him  at  Lincoln. 
He  was  in  the  South,  carrying  on  a  campaign  similar  to 
mine.  I  had  to  confine  myself  to  paying  a  visit  to  his 
home,  which  was  hospitable  even  in  his  absence. 

He  lives  in  an  elegant  villa  on  top  of  a  hill  at  some  dis 
tance  from  the  town.  I  went  there  by  automobile,  through 
a  woodless  but  fertile  country  and  over  roads  that  were 
not  worthy  the  name,  I  must  say !  I  admire  the  strength 
of  American  men,  and  especially  American  women,  and 
also  of  the  motor  springs  that  can  hold  out  against  such 
steeplechasing.  Of  course  a  new  country  is  something 
like  a  plot  in  the  builders'  hands,  and  the  roads  are  attended 
to  when  everything  else  is  finished.  America  is  still  in  the 
rut  period.1  Perhaps  the  roads  helped  to  keep  me  in  good 
health  by  providing  me  with  exercise. 

The  life  of  Mr.  William  Jennings  Bryan,  like  those  of 
his  successful  competitors  for  the  presidency  of  the  United 
States,  Messrs.  Theodore  Roosevelt  and  Taft,  testifies  to 
the  need  for  organization  and  stability  that  manifests  itself 
here  in  all  directions.  All  three  have  strongly  supported 
the  Hague  institution,  and  not  without  merit  to  themselves. 
Let  there  be  no  mistake  about  it :  a  narrow  mind  might 
think  that  the  national  interest  of  America  was  not  to 
situate  the  universal  capital  of  equity  and  the  final  ex 
pression  of  human  justice  in  Europe.  Why  should  such 
a  capital  of  new  ideals  be  in  the  old  world  and  not  in  the 
new?  The  government  of  the  United  States  showed  a 
great  deal  of  political  instinct,  but  also  a  certain  amount 
of  abnegation,  when  it  agreed  to  show  Europe  the  way  to 
the  Hague ;  and  I  am  surprised  that  Americans,  who  are 
constantly  accused  of  having  no  ideals,  have  never  thought 
of  drawing  attention  to  this  evident  proof  of  their  own 

1  This,  of  course,  does  not  apply  to  many  roads  I  have  enjoyed  near  such 
centers  as  New  York,  Boston,  Washington,  or  certain  military  roads. 


LINCOLN.      KANSAS   CITY  139 

disinterestedness.  The  movement  in  favor  of  interna 
tional  justice  in  the  United  States  is  a  national  and 
moral  movement.  It  is  a  complement  to  the  national 
education,  and  is  a  meeting  ground  for  all  who  think 
of  the  future.  The  widely  different  elements  brought 
into  America  by  emigration  from  abroad  cannot  be  fused 
into  a  homogeneous  state  without  education,  material  and 
moral  progress.  All  kinds  of  rival  regions  are  to  be  met 
with  on  the  American  continent,  and  if  they  cannot  be 
brought  together  by  a  higher  morality,  common  ideal  or 
public  spirit,  the  result  will  be  anarchy.  Americans  pos 
sess  this  public  spirit  in  the  highest  degree. 

France  —  Sower  of  Seed 

This  is  why  they  are  grateful  to  France  as  the  sower  of 
seed  in  the  form  of  humane  ideas.  Her  history,  her  great 
men  and  even  the  disasters  she  has  suffered  appeal  to 
the  world  at  large,  and  she  carries  on  a  work  of  universal 
education.  At  Lincoln,  far  from  Europe  and  far  from  every 
where,  I  was  the  guest  of  a  family  that  was  French  in 
spirit,  and  I  had  yet  another  opportunity  of  seeing  the 
affection  inspired  by  our  country  in  a  great  many  timid  and 
unknown  foreigners  who  turn  their  eyes  towards  her  despite 
all  the  ill,  and  perhaps  on  account  of  the  ill,  that  is  said 
of  us.  The  same  minds  that  disdain  newspaper  attacks  on 
individuals  undertake  to  rehabilitate  over-calumniated  na 
tions  in  esteem  ;  and  the  ill  will  back  of  the  criticisms  that 
are  leveled  at  our  efforts  and  struggles  has  certainly  placed 
a  great  many  people  on  our  side. 

"  Above  all,  do  not  be  discouraged"  was  the  remark 
made  to  me  by  a  Lincoln  man  —  a  great  traveler  and  very 
well  informed.  "France,"  he  continued,  "is  attacked  be 
cause  she  is  always  stirring  up  ideas,  making  people  aspire 
to  something  better  and  keeping  them  mentally  on  the 


140  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

move.  She  is  always  interfering  with  routine,  abuses  and 
accepted  errors.  This  is  what  constitutes  her  greatness. 
If  she  lets  herself  be  disconcerted  by  the  noise  of  her  own 
activity,  she  will  be  giving  up  the  part  she  has  to  play  in 
the  world.  Lincoln  is  not  the  only  place  where  this  view  is 
held ;  you  have  observed  it  elsewhere  and  will  observe  it 
every  day.  France  exercises  a  sort  of  fascination  in  places 
as  widely  separated  as  Australia,  India  and  South  America. 
If  only  you  could  realize  it !  The  thoughts  and  imagination 
of  the  entire  world  are  your  clients.  At  least  eighty  Lin 
coln  families  spend  their  vacations  in  France  every  year. 
My  own  children  have  lived  two  years  at  Tours.  And 
what  does  Lincoln  amount  to?  You  have  only  to  multiply 
the  number  I  have  just  mentioned  by  that  of  a  great  many 
other  and  larger  cities.  There  is  not  a  single  new  town, 
separated  though  it  may  be  from  you  by  thousands  and 
thousands  of  miles,  that  does  not  turn  its  thoughts  towards 
Paris,  send  you  its  best  men  and  women,  and  come  to  you 
to  spend  its  savings  and  lay  in  a  supply  of  what  makes  for 
comfort,  taste  and  refinement,  especially  the  last.  The 
French  ought  to  be  made  to  understand  that  the  world  is 
becoming  more  and  more  refined,  and  is  coming  to  Paris 
for  its  models.  Why?  Because  the  Frenchman  is  im 
pulsive,  critical,  witty  and,  above  all,  lively.  Don't  lose 
your  liveliness !  Only  pedants  and  fools  fail  to  realize  the 
depth  of  French  gayety.  It  is  as  charming  and  captivat 
ing  as  a  woman  smiling  through  her  tears  or  a  rainbow  in  a 
storm.  It  calls  up  whatever  is  sweetest  and  strongest 
in  the  soul.  To  the  world  it  is  a  source  of  regeneration, 
or  what  we  call  an  inspiration.  Morose  critics  may  cavil, 
but  all  the  better  for  you ;  we  love  to  shock  them.  French 
gayety  attracts  us  because  it  is  so  closely  allied  to  enthu 
siasm.  Do  not  let  your  wings  be  clipped.  Was  it  not 
your  Michelet  who  said  that  no  one  can  do  good  work 
except  in  a  cheerful  spirit?  You  create  masterpieces,  be- 


LINCOLN.      KANSAS   CITY  141 

cause  your  cheerfulness  is  a  soul-triumph,  born  of  anguish. 
Continue  to  be  bold,  enterprising,  and  intrepid;  go  on 
giving  the  world  explorers,  submarine  navigators,  aviators, 
scientists,  orators,  poets,  actors,  artists,  adventurers, 
strivers  after  the  unattainable,  Cyranos  de  Bergerac, 
d'Artagnans,  Bleriots  or  Pasteurs.  Hold  fast  to  your  ideals. 
""When  I  say  'Do  not  let  your  wings  be  clipped/  I  refer 
to  more  than  one  danger  that  has  to  be  avoided.  Because 
you  were  beaten  in  1870,  some  people  would  like  to  material 
ize  you  and  give  you  a  distaste  for  the  chimeras  that  have 
ennobled  and  enriched  you.  There  is  more  than  one  sign 
that  makes  this  evident  to  your  real  friends.  You  have 
everything  to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain  by  the  change." 

Alcoholism 

"For  instance,  all  sorts  of  little  weaknesses,  which  it 
would  be  easy  to  overcome,  are  contributing  to  the  spread 
of  the  liquor  habit,  and  it  is  a  great  pity.  To  make  the 
Frenchman  into  a  drunkard  is  like  killing  a  rara  avis  or 
spoiling  its  voice  and  destroying  its  gracefulness  and  its 
song.  Everybody  can  be  drunk,  but  everybody  cannot  be 


gay." 


Paris  and  Pornography 


"It  is  the  same  with  pornography.  To  please  a  certain 
number  of  dissolute  cosmopolitan  clients,  reduced  to  the 
lowest  forms  of  vulgarity,  you  give  up  your  speciality  — 
gracefulness.  This  is  inexcusable.  Everybody  can  be 
coarse,  but  not  everybody  can  be  refined.  For  the  sake  of 
this  low  patronage  from  people  who  will  come  back  to  you 
in  any  case,  because  they  must  have  change,  you  either 
divert  the  inflow  of  a  vast  family  clientele  or  lose  it.  Swit 
zerland  is  cleverer  than  you,  and  so  are  England  and  Ger 
many.  I  do  not  say  they  are  better  than  you ;  on  the  con- 


142  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

trary,  I  believe  in  the  honesty  and  scrupulous  probity  of 
the  Frenchman  and  Frenchwoman.  Your  Republican 
government  has  really  too  much  of  the  red-heel-shoe  or 
the  Directoire  period  about  it.  It  gives  so  much  rope 
that  it  makes  democratic  vices  out  of  what  used  to  be  hidden 
in  the  time  of  Louis  XV  and  his  favorites.  The  influence 
of  this  makes  itself  felt  in  everything,  and  the  result  is 
general  moral  slackness.  You  object  to  the  temporary 
obstruction  due  to  the  Metropolitan  Railway  works  in 
Paris,  but  you  allow  your  boulevards  to  be  permanently 
degraded  by  scattered  handbills,  professional  beggars  and 
touts.  You  put  up  with  the  evil-smelling  little  conven 
iences  that  gape  cynically  at  you  from  every  sidewalk. 
Still,  why  should  we  stop  to  bother  about  such  things  when 
we  are  so  glad  to  be  in  Paris  ?  And  yet  we  cannot  venture 
to  go  to  the  theater  without  risk  of  seeing  actors  in  their 
underwear  and  actresses  in  their  chemises,  if  not  less! 
Your  newspaper  stalls,  on  the  streets  and  in  the  railroad 
depots,  are  under  the  control  of  your  all-powerful  public 
administration,  which  licenses  them  and  derives  profit 
from  their  business,  and  yet  they  are  allowed  to  display 
obscene  publications,  less  to  the  injury  of  passing  strangers 
than  to  that  of  France's  own  children  —  young  workmen 
and  workwomen,  for  whom  there  is  no  protection  and  who 
are  brutalized  instead  of  being  helped  and  lifted  out  of 
the  mire.  One  of  the  finest  of  nations  is  being  poi 
soned,  weakened  and  depopulated.  What  a  pity !  There 
must  be  a  marvelous  hidden  reserve  of  good  in  France 
after  all  to  get  the  better  of  this  superficial  layer  of  filth !" 

I  thanked  him,  and  told  him  he  had  said  what  I  had 
been  saying  in  parliament  for  years.  He  continued : 

"France  is  the  world's  garden  —  the  promised  land. 
You  have  a  splendid  past;  and  think  of  your  landscapes, 
castles,  cathedrals  and  museums.  Noblesse  oblige !  With 
a  small  outlay  —  which  would  pay  for  itself  over  and  over 


LINCOLN.      KANSAS   CITY  143 

again,  in  upkeep  and  cleanliness,  —  you  could  double  the 
number  of  travelers  who  come  to  France.  You  have  plenty 
of  able  men,  —  men  who  can  govern,  —  but  you  have 
not  enough  government,  and  every  one  takes  advantage  of 
it.  Public  spirit  in  France  has  been  paralyzed  by  cen 
turies  of  obedience  and  does  not  seem  to  have  awakened 
yet,  and  in  the  meantime  the  administration  of  public 
affairs  has  gone  to  sleep.  The  one  relies  on  the  other,  and, 
at  this  rate,  a  change  will  be  a  long  time  coming." 

"Not  so  long  as  one  might  think,"  I  replied.  "The 
great  movements  of  public  opinion  spread  rapidly  nowadays, 
and  the  knowledge  of  what  affects  the  general  interest  is  no 
longer  confined  to  the  few.  We  are  already  having  frequent 
fits  of  ill  temper  which  sometimes  take  the  form  of  disgrace 
ful  violence  but  are  all  the  more  significant.  At  the  same 
time  we  see  perfectly  orderly  crowds  at  aviation  meetings. 
You  must  leave  us  time  either  to  govern  ourselves  or  make 
the  public  powers  understand  that  we  want  to  be  governed." 

Too  Many  Dogs  and  Cats 

"Very  well,  then,  let's  take  our  time  and  not  worry!" 
he  exclaimed,  with  quite  Gallic  gayety ;  "but,  in  the  mean 
time,  couldn't  you  help  to  thin  out  the  really  excessive 
number  of  dogs  and  cats  you  have  in  France?" 

The  Americans  are  very  strong  on  this  point,  like  the 
English.  They  are  by  no  means  wanting  in  affection  for 
domestic  animals,  which  they  treat  even  better  than  we  do 
(I  have  seen  dogs'  dentists  in  America) ;  but  they  con 
sider,  and  not  without  reason,  that  the  friend  of  man  is 
intrusive  and  dangerous  when  he  is  left  to  wander  about. 

Temperance 

Having  delivered  my  address  at  the  university,  I  left 
Lincoln  after  a  very  fine  banquet  held  in  my  honor.  It  is 


144  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

common  enough  for  ice  water  to  be  the  only  drink  at  Ameri 
can  banquets,  and  the  rule  is  strictly  observed  here.  Before 
I  made  my  speech,  I  thoughtlessly  asked  the  negro  waiter 
to  put  a  drop  of  whisky  in  my  glass.  He  gave  me  such  a 
look  that  I  still  turn  hot  all  over  when  I  think  of  it !  I  asked 
my  next-door  neighbor  for  an  explanation.  "Such  tem 
perance  at  a  dinner  surprises  you,"  he  said,  smiling,  "and 
you  are  inclined  to  think  it  is  hypocritical ;  but  it  is  a  very 
wise  rule,  and  you  will  see  other  examples  of  it.  We  are 
in  a  new  country  where  every  one  is  overworked  and  no 
wine  is  grown;  and  if,  instead  of  setting  an  example  of 
temperance,  we  were  to  begin  drinking  spirits,  where  would 
our  workmen  and  our  young  men  stop?  The  cocktail  is 
insidious." 

2.   Another  New  City.     Kansas  City 

In  describing  Kansas  City  I  do  not  want  to  be  unfaith 
ful  to  Seattle,  Denver  and  all  the  other  new  cities  where 
one  is  received  with  open  arms,  as  young  people  who  have 
just  set  up  housekeeping  welcome  a  visit  from  their 
grandparents.  All  the  same,  I  must  confess  that  I  am  in 
another  "  hub  of  the  universe."  It  is  a  very  fine  thing  to 
have  a  town  grow  up  under  one's  eyes  and  to  see  nothing 
beyond  it,  but  I  find  it  hard  to  get  accustomed  to  the  speed 
and  self-confidence  with  which  these  places  in  America  are 
developed.  How  could  it  be  otherwise  with  one  who 
comes  from  a  country  with  so  much  history,  the  valley  of 
the  Loire,  which  has  suffered  so  much,  has  seen  so  many 
expectations  and  disappointments,  so  many  tears  and  so 
much  bloodshed  and  so  many  masterpieces  created  and 
destroyed  ? 

But  for  its  happy  state  of  mind,  Kansas  City  might  be 
inclined  to  complain  of  its  location,  a  long  way  from  the 
Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  and  from  both  the  northern  and 
southern  frontiers  of  the  United  States.  Quite  the  con- 


LINCOLN.      KANSAS   CITY  145 

trary ;  the  farther  away  the  city  is,  the  more  it  considers 
itself  necessary  to  the  others.  The  wider  grows  the  diameter 
of  the  circle  of  which  Kansas  City  is  the  center,  the  more 
wealth  it  receives  and  distributes.  To-day  it  is  a  city  of 
250,000  inhabitants.  Its  population  has  increased  by 
100,000  in  ten  years.  It  makes  me  think  of  a  similar 
place  in  France,  also  located  in  the  heart  of  the  country 
and  in  a  rich  agricultural  district,  and  on  a  great  river.  It 
was  once  a  residence  of  kings  and  the  seat  of  the  court  of 
France.  It  is  still  celebrated  for  its  castle,  but  in  all  other 
respects  it  is  asleep  and  moss  grown.  What  a  contrast! 
Kansas  City  is  one  of  those  new  capitals  that  think  nothing 
is  beyond  their  reach  and  are  quite  persuaded  that  they 
are  the  source  and  the  goal  of  everything.  The  city  is 
served  by  eighteen  railroad  companies  with  thirty-four 
lines,  to  say  nothing  of  the  river  traffic,  estimated  (as  the 
city  advertisements  say)  as  the  future  equivalent  of  a 
hundred  railroads  running  themselves  and  costing  nothing. 
Kansas  City  has  coal  for  its  railroads  and  steamers.  For 
its  factories  it  has  something  even  better  than  coal  —  pe 
troleum,  and  especially  natural  gas,  close  at  hand,  on  the 
very  banks  of  the  Kansas  and  issuing  from  the  earth  through 
numerous  wells,  entirely  separate  from  one  another.  The 
cattle  pens  and  abattoirs  can  compare  with  those  of  Chicago. 
I  saw  enough  of  the  latter  ten  years  ago  to  dispense  with 
paying  a  visit  to  the  same  kind  of  thing  here.  It  is  a  re 
pulsive  sight,  and  I  have  already  described  it  quite  suffi 
ciently.1 

Agricultural  Center 

Kansas  City  is  an  agricultural  center.  Its  scientific  corn 
farming  gives  most  remarkable  results.  A  man  could 
easily  lose  himself  in  one  of  these  immense  harvest  fields. 
It  is  a  sight  to  see  reaping  machines  with  teams  of  ten, 

1  See  the  files  of  Le  Journal  FUchois  of  1902.    La  Fl&che  (Sarthe). 

L 


146  AMERICA   AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

twenty  or  thirty  horses  cut  down  great  slices  of  wheat, 
separate  the  grain  from  the  straw  and  turn  a  forest  of  wheat 
in  a  few  hours  into  a  desert  of  stubble.  On  still  larger 
estates,  a  farmer  told  me,  the  reaping  machines  leave  the 
straw  and  cut  off  only  the  ear,  which  is  thrashed  and  put 
into  sacks  as  the  machine  goes  on.  The  straw  back  of 
them  is  set  on  fire,  after  which  the  ground  is  plowed  and 
sown  by  other  steam  machinery,  so  as  to  reduce  the  amount 
of  labor  to  the  minimum.  This,  however,  is  nothing  new, 
no  more  than  apples  hand-gathered  in  thousands,  packed 
on  the  spot  and  sent  off  to  the  nearest  station  without  pass 
ing  through  farm  or  store.  Apricots,  plums,  almonds  and 
peaches,  fresh  or  dried,  are  treated  in  the  same  way,  as  in 
California,  in  Oregon,  etc. 

French  Horses 

There  is  a  great  influx  of  raw  material  to  Kansas  City: 
notably  gold,  silver  and  copper  from  Montana  and  Wyo 
ming  ;  zinc  and  lead  from  Oklahoma,  Arkansas  and  Missouri, 
oats  from  Iowa ;  hay,  cattle,  hogs,  sheep,  horses  and  mules 
from  all  adjoining  or  distant  states,  including  horses  from 
France.  During  the  past  twenty  years  I  have  observed  a 
great  increase  in  the  business  of  exporting  French  horses 
to  the  United  States  from  the  Maine  and  especially  the 
Perche  districts.  I  have  known  our  breeders  to  sell  unborn 
colts  for  as  much  as  two  hundred  dollars  apiece.  I  see  the 
descendants  of  these  colts  here  and  everywhere,  but  an 
other  privilege  of  France  is  that  neither  our  horses,  seeds 
nor  plants  can  maintain  their  good  qualities  abroad,  much 
less  perpetuate  them.  They  have  to  be  regularly  renewed 
in  France,  and  I  may  remark  in  parenthesis  that  it  takes  a 
good  deal  of  perseverance  to  carry  on  the  process,  seeing 
how  complicated  the  export  of  horses  is  made  in  France, 
owing,  as  usual,  to  the  absence  of  properly  organized  means 


LINCOLN.      KANSAS   CITY  147 

of  transport.  This  at  any  rate  is  what  I  am  told  by  Ameri 
can  buyers,  and  I  know  only  too  well  that  they  are  not 
exaggerating.  A  French  horse  bought  at  La  Ferte-Bernard 
or  Nogent-le-Rotrou  cannot  be  sent  direct  to  any  French 
port.  It  has  to  go  first  to  Paris  and  then  to  Havre,  where 
there  is  not  a  single  line  of  boats  properly  fitted  up  to  take 
horses  across  the  Atlantic.  The  animal  has  to  be  shipped 
across  the  Channel  to  England,  the  only  country  possess 
ing  large  cargo  steamers  of  the  Minneapolis  type.  One 
wonders  how  a  young  horse  can  be  conveyed  from  the 
green  meadows,  where  he  was  raised  and  left  to  run  about 
as  he  pleased,  to  his  destination  on  the  other  side  of  the 
ocean.  It  is  quite  surprising  to  find  that  he  generally  gets 
there  safe  and  sound. 

This  is  an  instance  of  the  defective  way  in  which  things 
are  organized  in  France.  What  is  France's  loss  is  Eng 
land's  gain.  Neither  Kansas  City  nor  any  neighboring 
state  wastes  time  over  such  details.  Nothing  is  allowed  to 
interfere  with  their  progress  or  check  their  vitality,  which 
hurry  along  with  bewildering  speed.  There  is  a  constant 
increase  in  the  number  of  banks,  the  extent  of  their 
operations  and  the  total  deposits.  It  is  even  asserted  that 
labor  is  cheaper  and  better  here  than  elsewhere.  For  this 
there  are  several  reasons.  Extra  help  can  be  summoned 
from  all  points  of  the  compass,  and,  if  there  is  a  shortage  of 
workmen,  a  few  telegrams  to  the  right  quarters  will  have 
the  desired  effect.  Secondly,  the  city  spends  a  great  deal 
on  public  education.  It  is  calculated  that  the  money  in 
vested  in  schools  decreases  the  number  of  vagabonds, 
drunkards  and  criminals,  produces  better  workmen  and 
makes  them  better  citizens.  Education  brings  them  more 
happiness  and  increases  the  value  of  their  labor.  Out 
bursts  of  discontent,  such  as  strikes,  are  less  frequent  and 
are  easier  to  settle.  This  state  of  things  may  perhaps  be 
because  the  demand  for  labor  in  a  new  city  is  so  great  that 


148  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

there  is  comparatively  little  hesitation  about  paying  high 
wages,  which  are  put  down  as  capital  outlay,  whereas  in 
an  old  city  they  count  as  upkeep  and  are  paid  out  of  revenue. 
The  difference  is  considerable.  Some  of  my  obliging 
Kansas  City  organizers,  who  are  so  skilled  in  the  art  of 
proving  that  their  city  is  the  industrial  capital  and  strategic 
center  of  the  New  World's  supplies,  have  provided  me  with 
the  following  figures,  which  I  give  entirely  on  their  authority  : 
An  ordinary  laborer,  who  is  paid  23  or  24  cents  an  hour  at 
Chicago,  gets  only  1 9  at  Kansas  City ;  a  workman  in  one 
of  the  building  trades,  who  is  paid  29  or  30  cents  an  hour 
at  Chicago,  can  command  only  20  at  Kansas  City,  and  so 
on. 

The  938  School-teachers 

It  is  easy  to  understand  that  these  agricultural,  indus 
trial  and  mining  states,  all  in  process  of  development, 
want  a  national  policy  that  makes  for  stability,  and  conse 
quently  the  reception  extended  to  me  at  Kansas  City  was 
particularly  cordial.  Several  months  before  my  arrival, 
I  saw  that  things  would  be  well  done  at  Kansas  City,  and 
in  no  half-hearted  fashion.  Even  before  I  left  France,  in 
February,  I  received  a  letter  informing  me  that  the  Kansas 
City  school  superintendent  had  given  the  938  school-teachers 
in  the  city  a  day's  vacation  for  April  20,  the  date  of  my 
lecture,  so  that  they  and  their  pupils  could  attend.  On 
reaching  Lincoln,  twenty-four  hours  before  I  was  due  at 
Kansas  City,  I  was  met  by  two  members  of  the  reception 
committee,  who  attended  the  banquet  at  Lincoln  and  then 
took  me  to  the  railroad  depot.  They  did  not  leave  me  until 
I  reached  the  door  of  my  stateroom,  and  there  they  were 
again  next  morning  before  we  arrived.  The  more  than  cor 
dial  way  in  which  I  was  received  on  the  platform  made  me 
forget  the  short  but  uncomfortable  night  I  had  spent  on 
the  train.  It  was  a  rather  sharp  morning.  Very  fast  and 


LINCOLN.      KANSAS   CITY  149 

very  open  motor  cars  were  waiting  for  us.  One  of  my 
aides-de-camp  seated  himself  at  the  steering  wheel  of  one 
of  these  cars  and  drove  off  with  me,  quite  cheerfully,  with 
out  thinking  it  at  all  necessary  to  put  on  an  overcoat, 
while  I  shivered  under  a  heap  of  coats  and  rugs.  I  felt  as 
if  there  were  a  good  deal  of  old  Europe  about  me  just  then  ! 
My  collapse,  however,  was  only  temporary.  I  was  taken 
to  a  hotel  and  left  in  a  sumptuous  suite,  where  I  began  to 
wonder  if  I  had  not  been  changed  into  some  one  else  on 
the  way  and  if  I  were  not  Sarah  Bernhardt  in  person ! 
On  every  table  were  lovely,  sweet-smelling  French  roses, 
and  many  other  signs  of  welcome  and  delicate  attention. 
I  was  recalled  to  reality  by  the  newspaper  men  and  pho 
tographers. 

The  Press 

Kansas  City  has  a  great  many  newspapers,  one  of  which 
has  a  circulation  of  260,000  while  the  others  run  to  about 
150,000.  I  had  only  just  satisfied  these  visitors  and 
attended  to  my  toilet  and  breakfast  when  the  motor  car 
was  announced  by  telephone  and  I  went  down. 

The  Automobiles  and  the  Plucky  Girls 

I  must  confess  that  I  was  rather  scared  by  the  Kansas 
City  automobiles.  As  in  the  rest  of  the  United  States, 
the  automobile  business  is  an  old  one  and  rather  the  worse 
for  wear.  It  is  "bad  business,"  as  they  say  here.  Every 
one  makes  motor  cars  and  every  one  has  one.  They  began 
by  bringing  cars  over  from  France  and  then  importing  the 
parts  and  putting  them  together,  and  finally  they  were 
made  everywhere.  There  are  two  kinds  of  automobiles 
here.  One  is  a  small  electric  car,  some  of  them  made 
in  Germany  and  used  principally  by  elderly  or  timid 
people.  It  is  a  coupe,  or  perhaps  a  landaulet,  driven  from 


150  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

inside  by  an  old  gentleman,  a  lady  or  a  little  girl.  As  a 
rule,  however,  the  girls  prefer  the  other  kind  —  the  big 
forty-horse-power  petrol  car.  It  is  most  alarming  to  see 
one  of  these  thunderbolts  rushing  at  you,  nonchalantly 
driven  by  a  child  of  fourteen,  who  looks  pityingly  at  you, 
very  much  as  you  might  look  at  a  startled  hen.  You  see 
the  projectile  fly  along  and  pass  your  own  automobile  with 
a  few  inches  to  spare,  and  you  have  also  the  consciousness 
that  you  are  wholly  innocent  and  yet  that  if  there  were  any 
accident  the  judge  would  be  sure  to  decide  in  favor  of  the 
woman  or  child,  who,  knowing  this,  can  run  any  risk ! 
This  kind  of  thing  is  unsettling.  People  who  come  to 
Kansas  City  from  Paris  are  clearly  not  up  to  date.  I  re 
proach  myself  with  it,  for  I  have  known  Englishmen  appoint 
mere  boys  as  cashiers  in  great  business  houses  —  also  a 
great  responsibility. 

Arriving  safe  and  sound  at  the  hall  where  I  was  to  speak, 
I  found  myself  face  to  face,  as  in  most  of  the  cities  on  my 
tour,  with  the  future  of  the  United  States  —  the  school 
teachers  of  to-day  and  to-morrow.  There  is  nothing  to 
equal  the  satisfaction  of  instructing  instructors  and  giving 
light  to  those  who  have  to  enlighten  others.  Its  effects  are 
not  immediately  visible,  but  they  are  certain  to  come,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  estimate  their  extent.  Its  effectiveness 
is  apt  to  be  ignored  because  it  does  not  act  at  once,  but  it 
goes  all  the  deeper.  Such  instruction  finds  its  way  into 
millions  of  minds,  and  reacts  on  generation  after  genera 
tion,  much  more  rapidly  than  is  generally  supposed. 

The  Park,  the  Boulevards 

After  my  address,  I  was  asked  to  deliver  an  extra  one  in 
the  afternoon  at  the  Shubert  Theater  for  the  ladies  of 
Kansas  City,  and  I  was  then  taken  to  see  the  city  and  its 
parks  and  boulevards.  It  was  a  memorable  drive.  The 


LINCOLN.      KANSAS   CITY  151 

city  covers  58  square  miles,  and  has  45  miles  of  boulevards 
and  324  miles  of  paved  streets.  It  is  just  hilly  enough  to 
give  its  inhabitants  the  pleasure  of  building  houses  that 
get  plenty  of  air.  Its  extension  is  in  width  and  not  in 
height,  except  the  big  hotels  and  a  few  immense  buildings 
erected  for  the  express  purpose  of  centralizing  an  organiza 
tion  that  can  hardly  be  complete  and  up  to  date  unless  it 
serves  a  great  number  of  people.  Every  one  insists  on 
having  his  own  home  and  his  own  garden  at  Kansas  City, 
just  as  people  do  in  the  majority  of  American  and  English 
towns.  This  system  is  facilitated  by  the  electric  tram 
ways,  and  it  costs  no  more  nowadays  to  spread  out  on 
cheap  land  than  to  build  story  upon  story,  after  the  old 
style,  on  enormously  costly  lots.  The  business  of  house 
and  land  agents  is  most  important  in  new  cities.  It  is  tre 
mendously  active  here  and  is  all  the  time  at  work  trans 
forming  waste  lots  into  residential  districts,  leveling  hills, 
filling  up  valleys,  creating  local  development  associations 
and  so  on.  The  style  of  all  these  houses  is  graceful  and 
varied.  Quite  a  number  of  American  architects  study  in 
France.  They  certainly  profit  by  what  they  learn  there. 
They  adapt  classical  ideas  to  the  requirements  of  numerous 
clients  who  dislike  routine.  The  result  is  most  satisfactory, 
but  American  domestic  architecture  certainly  seems  to  be 
principally  derived  from  English  cottages  and  country 
houses.  The  parks  here  are  large  and  numerous,  as  else 
where,  well  laid  out  and  connected  with  the  city  by  fine 
avenues.  One  of  the  boulevards  is  built  like  a  cornice 
along  the  face  of  a  picturesque  cliff  overlooking  the  valley 
of  the  Missouri  and  is  known  as  the  Cliff  Drive.  Nature 
has  given  this  cliff  the  appearance,  color  and  relief  of  one 
of  our  medieval  castles.  Ivy  and  the  fresh  green  vegeta 
tion  of  spring  grow  among  what  might  very  well  pass  for 
imitations  of  ancient  towers.  It  is  the  ruiniform  escarp 
ment,  well  known  to  geologists  and  often  met  with  in 


152  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

Europe.  It  might  have  been  placed  here  for  the  express 
purpose  of  making  a  new  promenade  look  as  if  it  had  a 
past.  What  luck  the  Kansas  City  real  estate  dealers  have ! 

The  Missouri's  Failure 

I  have  not  yet  referred  to  the  Missouri,  and  I  can  only 
call  it  a  disappointment.  Like  the  Loire,  it  is  a  river  that 
has  failed  in  its  duty  and  has  not  lived  up  to  its  traditions. 
In  all  the  cities  I  have  visited  on  the  banks  of  these  mag 
nificent  rivers,  they  are  scarcely  thought  of  except  as  a 
cause  of  floods.  I  cannot  help  uttering  yet  another  pro 
test  against  such  a  waste  of  natural  forces  and  such  modern 
vandalism.  Unless  I  am  mistaken,  the  inhabitants  of 
Kansas  City  took  my  reproach  to  heart.  "  We  agree  with 
you,"  they  said,  "but  a  movement  is  on  foot,  not  only 
among  our  manufacturers  and  merchants,  but  among  the 
public,  for  a  return  to  river  navigation,  afforestation  and 
all  other  questions  that  are  essential  to  the  development  of 
our  country.  Subscriptions  have  even  been  opened  in 
Kansas  among  workmen,  workwomen,  clerks  and  employees 
of  both  sexes,  with  a  view  to  a  revival  of  traffic  on  the 
Missouri.  The  subscription  is  a  success,  the  movement 
has  taken  shape,  and  now  it  is  only  a  question  of  time. 
Next  time  you  come  to  see  us,  we  will  take  you  on  the 
Missouri  to  St.  Louis." 


The  Lady  who  wants  to  Know 

The  last  banquet  of  the  day  (which  was  quite  as  busy  as 
its  predecessors)  took  place  at  my  hotel.  It  was  arranged 
by  an  influential  body  known  as  the  Knife  and  Fork  Club. 
There  were  at  least  five  or  six  hundred  guests,  in  the  hall 
and  annexes,  and  none  of  them  were  women !  Can  I  ven 
ture  to  say  that  I  was  not  sorry?  There  is  a  limit  to 


LINCOLN.       KANSAS   CITY  153 

human  endurance.  To  deliver  three  or  four  addresses 
every  day  for  several  months  in  succession  is  a  form  of 
physical  exercise  that  calls  for  training,  and  still  more  for 
organization.  Speaking  and  talking  are  not  the  same  thing, 
and  it  is  difficult  for  a  speaker  to  hold  forth  for  three 
quarters  of  an  hour,  after  dinner,  if  he  has  done  two  hours' 
talking  during  the  feast,  and  he  cannot  do  otherwise  if  he 
has  a  lady  next  to  him,  especially  when  that  lady  is  interest 
ing.  There  are  some  women  who  excel  in  the  art  of  ex 
hausting  a  lecturer.  They  squeeze  him  like  a  lemon,  after 
which  they  leave  the  remains  for  his  hearers.  Heaven 
preserve  me  from  the  enthusiastic  woman  who  wants  to 
know  everything  and  has  left  you  no  time  either  to  eat  or 
to  take  breath  before  the  chairman  calls  on  you  for  your 
speech !  I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  run  away  from  her 
—  or  at  least  to  denounce  her,  as  there  is  no  running  away. 
She  is  to  be  found  in  all  countries,  and  she  never  releases 
her  prey. 

The  Knife  and  Fork  Club 

The  members  of  the  Knife  and  Fork  Club  hold  banquets 
less  for  the  sake  of  eating  and  drinking  than  meeting  one 
another  and  getting  acquainted  with  any  new  facts  that 
may  be  useful  to  them.  The  dinner  they  gave  me  was  the 
one  hundred  and  second  since  the  foundation  of  the  club. 
After  dessert,  the  waiters  retire,  the  doors  are  closed,  every 
body  draws  up  to  the  head  table,  lights  his  cigar  and  pre 
pares  to  listen.  Not  a  word  is  lost.  A  speech,  especially 
by  a  foreigner,  appeals  to  the  members  as  a  sight  and  an 
attraction  as  much  as  an  opportunity  to  learn  something. 
Galleries  around  the  hall  enable  the  members'  wives  and 
friends  to  hear  what  is  said.  No  subject  appeals  more 
strongly  to  American  audiences  than  the  need  of  national 
expansion  and  developing  of  intercourse  with  the  rest  of 
the  world. 


154  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

Just  before  the  close,  the  chairman,  George  H.  Forsee, 
gave  a  mysterious  sign  that  every  one  but  myself  under 
stood.  A  large  case  was  brought  to  him,  and  after  thank 
ing  me  for  coming  so  far  to  tell  them  about  France,  he  re 
quested  me,  in  terms  that  considerably  touched  me,  to 
take  home  a  souvenir  of  Kansas  City ;  and,  as  he  opened 
the  case  to  hand  it  to  me,  I  saw  that  it  contained  a  mighty 
silver  knife  and  fork  on  which  my  name  and  the  date, 
April  20,  were  engraved.  I  do  not  know  what  I  said  in 
reply,  but  I  am  quite  sure  that  if  ever  I  return  to  Kansas 
City,  I  shall  find  myself  among  friends,  and  this  applies  not 
only  to  myself  but  to  all  good  Frenchmen  whose  repre 
sentative  and  messenger  for  a  day  I  was. 

And  now  for  my  room,  my  bag  and  my  roses,  and  then 
the  automobile,  the  depot  and  the  train,  wherein  I  say 
good-by  to  my  guides,  and  so  to  sleep  after  a  fashion, 
waking  next  morning  at  St.  Louis. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   CAPITAL   OF   OLD   LOUISIANA 

i.  NEW  FRANCE.  The  Mississippi.  I  see  Cavalier  de  La  Salle 
passing.  The  martyrdom  of  our  pioneers.  The  foundation  of  St. 
Louis.  The  treaties  of  Utrecht  and  of  Paris.  The  selling  of 
Louisiana.  The  funeral  of  the  Flag.  —  2.  THE  POPULATION,  THE 
CLIMATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  All  kinds  of  climate.  Floods 
and  earthquakes.  Peace  necessary.  Souvenirs  of  France.  St. 
Louis  exhibition.  French  and  American  idealism  relatives 
but  strangers. — 3.  THE  FRENCH  SPIRIT.  THE  FRENCH  LAN 
GUAGE.  The  country  as  it  is.  Mr.  Robert  Brookings.  They  do 
not  dare  speak  foreign  languages.  Happy  change.  A  French 
lesson.  The  lesson  of  the  Hague.  —  4.  AMERICAN  DEVOTEDNESS. 
The  paradise  of  American  hospitality.  Human  good  will. 
Against  skepticism.  St.  Louis,  expansion. 

i.  New  France 

I  WAS  already  up  when,  next  morning,  Friday,  April  21, 
the  ever  smiling  negro  knocked  on  the  door  of  my  state 
room  and  notified  me  that  we  were  not  far  from  St.  Louis. 
Three  nights  in  succession  on  the  railroad  had  not  contrib 
uted  to  my  physical  repose  —  (not  all  the  lines  here  are 
good  ones,  and  the  one  I  had  to  take  at  Lincoln  to  save 
time  was  quite  one  of  the  worst)  —  but  I  was  still  further 
from  being  mentally  rested.  Since  leaving  the  Rocky 
Mountains  behind  me  on  my  journey  away  from  the  Pa 
cific,  I  had  felt,  not  as  if  I  were  going  further  away  but 
as  if  I  were  returning ;  and  the  first  stage  of  this  return 
journey  to  Europe  was  to  St.  Louis,  the  capital  of  French 
Louisiana. 

155 


156  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

Louisiana !  The  name  has  a  sweet  and  yet  painful  sound 
to  a  French  ear;  it  symbolizes  so  much  beauty,  so  much 
strength  of  mind,  so  much  heroism,  so  much  of  the  clear 
sightedness  of  genius,  and,  at  the  same  time,  so  much  moral 
hideousness,  so  much  ineptitude,  so  much  false  wit  and 
so  much  cowardice ;  it  sums  up  not  only  all  the  grandeur 
and  misery  of  France,  but  the  grandeur  and  misery  of  hu 
manity  at  large,  so  well  that  the  country  of  to-day  vanished 
from  my  eyes  and  I  saw  nothing  but  its  past.  Without 
exaggeration  I  can  say  I  saw  La  Salle  at  New  Orleans.  I 
could  not  refrain  from  tears  when  I  found  him  still  living 
in  the  memory  of  the  Frenchmen  I  met;  I  sympathized 
with  him  in  his  trials,  as  if  they  dated  only  from  yesterday ; 
I  suffered  what  he  suffered,  and  I  blushed  for  the  men  who 
deserted  him  as  I  should  blush  for  a  national  disgrace. 

I  was  met  at  the  central  depot  by  one  of  those  Americans, 
numerous  in  the  United  States  but  whose  existence  is  not 
even  suspected  in  Europe,  whose  whole  life  is  devoted 
to  the  public  good.  I  was  immediately  taken  to  one  of  the 
fine  residences  that  adorn  the  new  part  of  the  city;  but 
before  referring  to  this  paradise  of  hospitality,  let  me  finish 
what  I  have  to  say  about  the  old  town. 

I  requested  to  be  shown  it  as  soon  as  possible  —  immedi 
ately  after  my  first  lecture  engagement,  which  had  to  be 
fulfilled  ^directly  on  reaching  St.  Louis  —  and  I  went 
straight  to  the  bridge  over  the  Mississippi.  I  declined  to 
visit  any  of  the  public  buildings,  and,  in  fact,,  one  of  my 
weaknesses  is  a  distaste  for  seeing  public  buildings.  My 
friends  may  be  astonished  and  pained,  but  I  cannot  help 
it;  I  have  seen  too  many  "Monuments"  in  my  time. 
I  have  always  said  that  one  cannbt  see  a  country  through 
society,  and  it  is  the  same  with  public  buildings.  What 
interests  me  is  the  earth,  the  sky,  the  men,  the  problems. 
A  description  of  the  capitol  of  every  city  I  visit  need  not 
be  expected  from  me. 


THE   CAPITAL  OF   OLD  LOUISIANA 


The  Mississippi 

The  Mississippi,  a  magnificent  and  unutilized  river, 
flows  before  me.  Like  the  Missouri,  it  does  nothing  but 
flood  the  surrounding  country,  which  seems  to  be  the  prin 
cipal  function  of  great  rivers  nowadays.  Civilization  dis 
dains  them,  but  no  matter;  this  is  but  one  out  of  many 
cases  in  which  man  has  spurned  Nature's  gifts.  None  the 
less  does  the  river  spread  out  its  broad  surface  of  water 
that  springs  from  so  far  away;  and  this  is  the  river  that 
once  bore  our  pinoeers. 

Cavalier  de  la  Salle 

I  can  see  Cavalier  de  la  Salle  and  his  thirty-three  French 
men  floating  down  in  their  Indian  canoes.  They  have 
come  from  Quebec  ;  after  Cartier  and  Champlain,  they 
have  made  their  way  up  the  St.  Lawrence  ;  they  have 
reached  Lake  Erie  and  the  inland  seas  formed  by  the  Great 
Lakes  ;  they  have  battled  with  the  extremes  of  climate,  so 
cold  in  winter  and  hot  in  summer;  they  have  lived  by 
hunting  the  bison  and  wild  goose,  but  privations  have  been 
their  ordinary  lot  ;  they  have  crossed  marshes  and  forests, 
and  braved  reptiles,  wild  beasts,  mosquitoes,  men  and 
animals;  they  have  left  behind  more  than  one  of  their 
number,  taken  in  ambush  and  tortured,  or  worn  out  by  dys 
entery,  like  that  fine  man  Father  Marquette,  whom  the 
Church,  in  default  of  France,  ought  to  have  glorified  and 
beatified  ;  they  have  built  forts,  especially  the  one  named, 
only  too  well,  Creve-coenr  (heart-break)  ;  they  have  built 
a  flotilla,  and  even  a  ship,  the  Griffon,  lost  through 
treachery  on  the  part  of  its  pilot;  they  have  long  sought 
the  unknown  sources  of  the  rivers  that  flow  into  the  Atlan 
tic,  and  those  of  the  Great  Lakes;  nothing  has  shaken 
their  courage  ;  they  have  inspired  confidence  in  the  Indians, 


158  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

living  Chateaubriand's  romances  before  they  were  written, 
and  inculcating  amity  rather  than  the  spirit  of  lucre  and 
conquest ;  they  have  learned  the  Indians'  tongue,  entered 
into  alliances  with  some  and  fought  against  the  more  fero 
cious  ;  they  have  reached  the  dividing  line  of  the  watershed 
and,  to  cross  it,  organized  —  at  what  risks  and  at  what  a 
cost !  —  the  "portages"  whose  names  still  appear  in  French 
on  the  maps;  they  have  penetrated  the  mysteries  of  the 
other  side.  Here  they  come,  down  the  Ohio  River  first 
and  then  down  the  Illinois,  till  they  came  here  —  here 
where  I  stand ! 


Martyrdom  of  our  Pioneers 

One  of  these  journeys  lasted  two  years !  Two  years  with 
no  shelter  save  the  changing  sky,  no  food  save  what  chance 
brought  them  or  the  flesh  of  alligators,  and  none  but  Na 
ture's  remedies  against  unrelenting  diseases:  two  years 
without  money,  without  armed  forces,  without  ammuni 
tion,  without  support  against  persistent  attacks  on  them 
selves  and  their  reputations !  Their  one  passion  was  to  go 
forward  —  to  create  and  conquer  a  continent.  In  his 
proclamation  on  April  9,  1682,  La  Salle  was  able  to  do  hom 
age  to  Louis  XIV  by  presenting  him  with  New  France,  or 
Louisiana,  to  which  La  Salle  gave  the  king's  name.  Louisi 
ana  comprised  the  whole  of  the  immense  watershed  and 
the  rivers  that  flow  through  it,  some  ice-cold  and  some 
scalding  hot,  and  all  the  surrounding  territory.  Colbert 
understood  La  Salle  and  supported  him  against  the  cabals 
that  were  formed  against  him,  as  well  as  against  his  credi 
tors  and  the  men  who  were  jealous  of  him,  and  Governor 
La  Barre's  foolish  treachery.  Several  times  La  Salle  made 
the  journey  from  America  to  Versailles  —  a  still  more  ad 
venturous  undertaking  than  exploring  the  Mississippi. 
As  every  one  knows,  his  life  came  to  a  miserable  end,  as 


THE   CAPITAL  OF   OLD   LOUISIANA  159 

sad  as  that  of  Dupleix  and  even  more  tragic.  Involved 
as  he  was  in  debts  that  were  an  honor  to  him,  and  impov 
erished  through  having  enriched  his  country,  death  was 
all  he  needed  to  become  a  genuine  French  hero.  Captain 
de  Beaujeu,  who  was  ordered  to  convey  him  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi,  either  made  a  mistake  or  wilfully  de 
ceived  him,  and  abandoned  him  on  the  desert  coast  of  Texas. 
Even  this  blow  could  not  subdue  his  unconquerable  energy. 
He  made  up  his  mind  to  reach  the  Mississippi  once  more 
and  make  his  way  upstream  to  Canada,  so  as  to  be  able 
to  provide  access  to  his  beloved  Louisiana  by  two  entirely 
different  routes,  from  the  south  as  well  as  the  north.  It 
was  on  this  ground  that  La  Barre  denounced  him  as  a 
madman  and  a  national  danger.  He  started  off  on  foot, 
through  forests  and  across  deserts,  and  he  had  proceeded 
a  considerable  distance  inland  when  his  companions  mur 
dered  him  and  left  his  body  to  the  wild  beasts.  He  was 
forty-four  years  old. 

Martyrdom  is  a  most  powerful  incentive.  Those  who 
came  after  Champlain,  Marque tte  and  La  Salle  were 
legion ;  and  business  men  began  to  see  that  profit  was  to 
be  had  by  following  in  their  footsteps  and  reaping  the  fruit 
of  their  heroic  efforts.  Colbert  gave  the  movement  a 
start  by  organizing  colonization  officially  and  sending  out 
four  thousand  farmers  from  Brittany,  Normandy  and  Anjou 
to  Canada,  where  they  spread  out  in  all  directions.  They 
had  established  various  centers  which  had  grown  into 
towns  (still  bearing  French  names)  when  France  met  with 
a  series  of  disasters,  such  as  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  whereby 
Newfoundland  was  given  up,  the  bitter  rivalry  between 
the  Capuchins  and  the  Jesuits,  and  finally,  at  the  end  of 
Louis  the  Fifteenth's  reign,  the  desertion  and  profaning  of 
everything  that  had  been  conceived  and  accomplished  by 
French  genius. 


l6o  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

Creation  of  St.  Louis 

St.  Louis  was  originally  nothing  more  than  a  refuge  from 
the  invading  English.  The  French  were  outnumbered 
along  the  whole  length  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  and,  except 
Sainte  Genevieve,  they  had  merely  a  few  outposts  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Mississippi.  They  crossed  the  river.  Two 
out  of  this  band  of  hardy  pioneers,  the  sons  of  La  Verendrye, 
even  made  their  way,  unaided,  as  far  as  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains,  which  they  discovered  as  long  ago  as  1742,  more 
than  sixty  years  before  the  existence  of  these  mountains 
was  officially  recognized.  When  we  lost  the  fine  valley  of 
the  Ohio,  and,  with  it,  the  most  direct  route  between  the 
two  capitals  of  Louisiana,  from  New  Orleans  to  Montreal, 
the  French  fell  back  upon  the  right  bank  of  the  Mississippi, 
where,  near  its  junction  with  the  Missouri,  they  decided 
to  look  for  the  most  suitable  position  for  a  center  of  com 
munication  between  the  north  and  the  south,  which  would 
also  serve  as  a  base  for  exploring  and  hunting  expeditions 
in  the  untrodden  west.  The  Louisiana  Fur  Company 
intrusted  Pierre  Laclede,  who  was  then  thirty-nine  years 
of  age,  with  the  command  of  the  expedition.  He  left 
New  Orleans  in  1763  and  established  himself  first  of  all  at 
Sainte  Genevieve  and  then  at  Fort  Chartres,  but  finally 
selected  the  unknown  site  that  is  now  the  metropolis  of 
this  great  valley  and  is  before  my  eyes. 

From  all  the  centers  occupied  by  the  French  there  went 
out,  with  Pierre  Laclede  and  after  him,  a  succession  of 
travelers,  trappers,  hunters  and  woodmen  whose  poetic 
existence  in  these  virgin  territories  has  given  rise  to  many  a 
legend.  The  exploits  of  Mme  Chouteau,  who  accompanied 
Laclede,  and  those  of  her  two  sons,  Pierre  and  Auguste 
Chouteau  —  especially  those  of  the  younger,  Auguste,  who, 
at  the  age  of  thirteen,  was  given  the  command  of  a  party 
of  thirty  men  —  were  romances  in  real  life.  They  inspired 


THE   CAPITAL   OF   OLD  LOUISIANA  l6l 

literature  that  gave  food  to  our  imaginations  for  nearly  a 
century  and  still  had  its  influence  long  afterwards. 

The  Treaties  of  Utrecht  and  of  Paris 

All  these  achievements  of  the  French  in  Louisiana,  like 
those  of  Montcalm  and  La  Bourdonnaye,  counted  for 
nothing  at  Versailles.  They  were  treated  as  so  much  rub 
bish  by  the  treaty  of  Paris;  and  New  France,  like  the 
French  Indies,  ceased  to  exist.  The  saddest  part  of  the 
affair  is  that  Louis  XV  is  not  alone  responsible  for  this 
abandonment.  He  was  encouraged  by  the  state  of  feeling 
that  prevailed  in  his  court  and  even  among  great  French 
thinkers,  who  made  it  a  point  of  honor  to  treat  the  New 
World  as  of  no  consequence.  Their  amusing  but  silly 
utterances  on  the  question  are  too  well  known  to  need 
repeating  here.  It  must  also  be  recognized  that  only  by 
means  of  peace,  and  in  peace,  can  any  power  flatter  itself 
on  being  able  to  keep  its  sway  over  distant  colonies.  Eng 
land  herself  has  experienced  this.  She  took  advantage  of 
our  difficulties  at  home  and  abroad  to  appropriate  our 
colonies,  but  she  had  to  give  them  up  again  a  few  years 
later  to  the  United  States,  under  pressure  of  the  clever 
policy  of  Vergennes  and  a  European  coalition.  Louisiana 
has  changed  hands  six  times  in  the  course  of  a  century, 
passing  from  France  to  Spain  and  England  and  finally  to 
the  United  States,  with  its  immense  territory  now  divided 
into  fourteen  states.  This  last  transition  was  inevitable. 
It  might  and  ought  to  have  been  an  additional  link  between 
France  and  the  New  World,  instead  of  being,  as  it  was,  a 
humiliation  of  the  worst  kind.  This  humiliation  was 
especially  painful  to  me  at  St.  Louis  as  a  diplomatist,  a 
Frenchman  and  a  man ;  and  it  is  as  painful  for  the  Ameri 
cans  as  ourselves.  No  one  need  feel  at  all  proud  of  such  a 
transaction. 


1 62  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

The  Selling  of  Louisiana 

Louis  XV  betrayed  New  France ;  Napoleon  I  sold  it.  I 
know  of  no  other  piece  of  barter  so  sordid  and  repulsive  as 
this.  History  has  shown  us  only  one  side  of  the  picture : 
Talleyrand's  diplomacy  unscrupulously  parceling  out  what 
he  had  to  offer,  sealing  the  fate  of  nations  and  executing 
them  at  a  distance  with  a  stroke  of  the  pen,  just  as  Na 
poleon  gave  orders  to  execute  the  Duke  of  Enghien  and 
put  Toussaint  FOuverture  out  of  the  way.  But  we  must 
see  the  other  side  of  the  picture  and  know  what  followed 
these  executions.  In  this  respect  the  Americans  are  im 
partial  historians,  and  we  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  some 
of  them,  such  as  Parkman,  who  have  done  justice  to  our 
work  and  to  our  countrymen  —  a  justice  that  we  ourselves 
refused  to  grant  them.  Even  the  English  have  adopted 
Dupleix,  whom  we  condemned.  I  have  heard  Cecil  Rhodes 
speak  of  Dupleix  almost  as  if  he  were  a  god,  and  ask  me 
indignantly  how  France  could  have  been  so  ungrateful 
towards  one  of  her  greatest  sons. 

The  Funeral  of  the  Flag 

The  Americans  have  given  us  a  moving  account  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  sale  of  Louisiana  was  carried  out. 
The  French  in  Louisiana  were  amazed  enough  to  find 
themselves  handed  over  to  Spain  in  1768,  but  they  can 
hardly  have  believed  the  evidence  of  their  senses  when  they 
discovered  that  their  cherished  land  had  been  sold  to  the 
United  States  for  sixteen  million  dollars  as  the  outcome  of 
secret  treaties  or,  rather,  underhand  maneuvers  that  no 
one  cared  to  admit.  They  were  quite  ready  to  agree  that 
France,  in  danger  as  she  was  of  a  renewal  of  age-long  con 
flicts  with  her  neighbors,  could  not  keep  Louisiana;  but 
sell  it,  when  a  free  gift  of  the  country  would  have  been 


THE   CAPITAL   OF   OLD   LOUISIANA  163 

both  noble  and  politic!  Louisiana  should  have  been 
treated  as  a  daughter  to  be  given  in  marriage  and  not  as  a 
slave  to  be  bartered.  It  was  worse  still  to  sell  Louisiana 
to  the  United  States  after  the  war  of  independence  and 
its  noble  alliance  of  two  nations  in  the  struggle  for  liberty. 
Revolutionary  France  selling  Louisiana  to  the  country  that 
issued  the  Declaration  of  Independence:  the  France  of 
Lafayette,  Grasse  and  Rochambeau!  It  was  like  diplo 
macy  throwing  down  a  challenge  to  human  dignity.  The 
price  itself  showed  ignorance  and  disdain.  Sixteen  million 
dollars  for  a  continent  that  produces  thousands  of  millions 
every  year!  At  New  Orleans,  on  Dec.  20,  1803,  after 
the  Spanish  authorities  had  lowered  their  standard  to  make 
way  for  the  French  flag,  the  latter's  turn  came  to  be  hauled 
down.  The  ceremony  was  carried  out  with  great  pomp,  in 
obedience  to  strict  orders  from  Napoleon  and  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States.  For  the  last  time  the  people 
cheered  the  tricolor  as  it  fluttered  down.  They  saw  the 
banner,  spangled  with  America's  stars  of  youth,  rise  to  the 
masthead.  Then  they  formed  in  procession  and  silently 
wended  their  way,  as  if  to  a  funeral,  following  their  dead 
flag  to  the  governor's  house.  It  was  the  burial  of  New 
France.  France's  pioneers  were  mocked  and  hindered  in 
their  lifetime,  and  now  that  they  were  dead  the  government 
of  the  day  was  making  money  out  of  what  they  had  ac 
complished. 

"  Sic  vos  non  vobis  "  ("Thus  you  labor  but  not  for  your 
selves"),  say  the  skeptics,  sneeringly ;  but  the  actions  of  a 
government  cannot  affect  men's  fame.  The  reward  is  in 
doing  the  work  to  which  a  man  has  set  his  hand,  and  not 
in  success.  The  world  to-day  does  our  pioneers  the  justice 
they  could  not  obtain  in  their  lifetime,  and  France  gains 
by  it.  So  much  for  the  past,  and  now  for  the  St.  Louis  of 
to-day. 


164  AMERICA  AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

2.    The  Population.     The  Climate  of  the  United  States 

What  would  Laclede  and  the  young  Chouteaus  —  who 
built  the  first  streets  in  St.  Louis  in  1764,  beginning  with 
Market  Street  —  say  if  they  could  see  the  city  now,  with 
nearly  twenty  miles  of  river  frontage  and  not  far  from  a 
million  inhabitants :  the  fourth  city  in  the  United  States 
and  the  capital  of  one  of  the  richest  states  in  North 
America  ?  What  would  Mme.  Chouteau  say  ?  She  would 
have  her  villa,  which  would  no  doubt  be  a  very  handsome 
one,  overlooking  the  park,  in  the  residential  quarter ;  for 
American  cities  are  almost  invariably  laid  out  in  accord 
ance  with  the  accepted  Roman,  English  and  colonial  idea 
of  not  living  where  one  works,  of  attending  to  one's  af 
fairs  during  the  day  in  the  business  district,  in  contact  with 
workmen  and  natives,  and  spending  the  rest  of  one's  time 
in  as  attractive  and  airy  a  residence  as  possible.  The  whole 
population  of  St.  Louis,  including  the  working  class,  emi 
grates  in  this  way  toward  the  setting  sun.  St.  Louis  has 
its  West  End,  like  London  and  Paris. 

What  I  am  never  tired  of  admiring,  though  I  see  it  every 
where  amid  the  prodigious  expansion  of  American  cities, 
is  the  contempt  for  obstacles.  Every  one  looks  on  the 
bright  side  of  the  country  and  its  future.  Very  little  heed 
is  paid  to  criticisms,  and  everything  gets  straightened  out 
in  the  long  run.  The  essential  point  is  that,  as  a  geographi 
cal  fact,  nothing  can  prevent  St.  Louis  from  being  a  great 
center  for  all  agricultural  and  other  produce  of  the  north, 
south,  east  and  west,  and  one  of  the  great  markets  for  to 
bacco,  cotton,  wool,  cattle,  hides,  canned  provisions,  wood, 
cereals  and  barley.  The  early  French  settlers  have  died 
out,  and  German  brewers  and  manufacturers,  in  much 
greater  numbers,  have  taken  their  place.  These,  in  turn, 
will  become  Americans,  inasmuch  as  St.  Louis  is  also  a 
center  of  population  in  which  all  the  varying  elements 


THE   CAPITAL   OF   OLD   LOUISIANA  165 

that  go  to  make  up  the  American  nationality  are  fused 
together. 

More  than  one  of  my  readers  will  no  doubt  take  excep 
tion  to  such  optimism,  and  exclaim:  "The  Americans  are 
not  perfect ;  they  have  their  faults."  I  know  they  have, 
seeing  that  they  have  inherited  ours  and  those  of  all  the 
other  emigrants  from  whom  they  are  descended.  I  realize 
for  one  thing,  like  every  one  else,  all  that  the  Americans 
have  to  learn  in  the  sphere  of  international  relations,  in 
which  they  are  newcomers.  There  are  detestable  Ameri 
cans,  just  as  there  are  detestable  Frenchmen,  Englishmen, 
Germans,  Italians  and  Russians.  I  will  even  go  so  far 
as  to  admit  that  any  new  country  necessarily  must  contain 
more  adventurers  than  are  to  be  found  in  old  countries; 
but  there  is  also  less  egoism  and  less  routine,  and  there  is 
an  average  intelligence  born  of  the  experience  and  initiative 
which  are  constantly  in  use  and  tend  to  make  every  one 
realize  what  is  meant  by  the  public  interest.  I  will  also 
admit  that  the  Americans  I  met  nearly  all  belonged  to  the 
very  best  class ;  but  this  is  the  class  to  study,  because  it 
does  not  confine  itself  to  accepting  things  as  they  are,  but 
is  a  live,  active  force  in  guiding  and  educating  the  people 
and  forming  the  rest  of  the  country  after  its  own  image. 
Nothing  is  more  futile  than  to  confine  one's  investigations  to 
the  inferior  and  unassimilated  types  in  a  community  while 
the  higher  types  are  trying  to  make  the  others  follow  in  their 
wake.  If  we  want  to  understand  not  only  what  the  United 
States  have  been,  and  are,  but  what  they  will  be,  we  must 
make  ourselves  acquainted  with  the  elite  of  the  nation. 

Much  might  also  be  said  on  the  question  of  climate. 
Just  as*  the  Americans  put  up  with  a  continual  influx  of 
all  sorts  of  people  so  long  as  the  latter  fall  into  line  with  the 
national  education,  so  they  are  delighted  with  their  climate, 
which  strikes  me  as  open  to  question;  but  then  I  am  a 
Frenchman  and,  consequently,  spoiled  in  this  respect. 


1 66  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

All  Kinds  of  Climate 

All  kinds  of  climate,  as  well  as  all  kinds  of  agriculture, 
are  to  be  found  at  St.  Louis  —  heat  and  cold,  not  forgetting 
the  national  draught,  my  personal  enemy.  The  Americans 
live  in  a  perpetual  draught.  The  country  is  always  more 
or  less  windy,  and  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  outcome  of 
this  passion  for  draught  is  to  be  found  in  the  multitude  of 
strange  diseases  on  which  the  surgeons  have  fastened.  An 
incalculable  number  of  my  American  friends  have  had 
their  forehead  or  ears  or  nose  cut  open,  so  as  to  be  relieved 
of  what  I  take  to  be  the  results  of  draught.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  sympathize  with  the  Americans  in  their  war  against 
mosquitoes  and  flies,  which  they  regard  as  propagators  of 
epidemics.  In  this  semi-tropical  country,  there  are  quan 
tities  of  insects,  unknown  to  us,  that  make  life  a  burden. 
Bites  from  certain  kinds  of  mosquitoes  are  positively  ven 
omous.  In  spite  of  this  danger,  the  Americans  sleep  out 
doors,  while  we,  though  lucky  enough  to  know  nothing  about 
it,  save  in  very  exceptional  cases,  shut  our  windows  tightly. 
In  self-defense,  however,  they  have  to  put  wire  netting  over 
their  window  frames,  like  so  many  larders.  These  veils 
between  them  and  the  sky  considerably  darken  the  rooms, 
but  the  reply  to  remarks  on  this  point  is :  "It  is  simply  a 
brief  period  in  the  national  history.  Americans  will  destroy 
flies  and  mosquitoes  just  as  they  have  stamped  out  yellow 
fever." 

Floods  and  Earthquakes 

It  will  not  be  so  easy,  however,  to  deal  with  the  floods, 
and  especially  the  earthquakes.  I  had  no  time  to  discuss 
this  question  at  San  Francisco.  I  did  not  want  to  hurt 
my  friends'  feelings.  Inhabitants  of  San  Francisco  do  not 
care  to  be  reminded  that  their  city  was  destroyed  by  an 
earthquake,  or  to  be  asked  why  there  are  still  some  vacant 


THE   CAPITAL   OF   OLD  LOUISIANA  167 

lots  in  the  best  parts  of  the  city.  If  the  question  comes  up, 
they  tell  you  that  the  fire  did  a  great  deal  more  damage 
than  the  earthquake ;  that  is  to  say,  the  fire  combined  with 
lack  of  water  and  defective  organization,  which  will  not 
happen  again.  The  real  truth  is  that  terrible  natural 
catastrophes,  such  as  earthquakes,  floods,  cyclones,  tor 
nadoes  and  tidal  waves,  happen  in  the  United  States,  but 
the  inhabitants  make  light  of  them.  Instead  of  putting 
up  with  being  ruined,  like  the  people  of  Messina,  for  in 
stance,  at  first,  and  resigning  themselves  to  living  next 
door  to  the  cemetery  in  which  their  former  homes  are 
buried,  they  immediately  set  to  work  again,  and  take  ad 
vantage  of  the  accident  to  build  better  than  before.  Great 
progress  resulted  from  the  tidal  wave  that  submerged 
Galveston.  Chicago  did  the  same  kind  of  thing  a  long 
time  ago,  in  1855,  which  did  not  prevent  a  general  recon 
struction  of  the  city  after  the  great  fire  in  1871.  I  am 
almost  led  to  ask  whether  we  have  our  proper  share  of 
catastrophes  in  France  1  Two  hours  after  the  earthquake 
at  San  Francisco,  the  business  men  and  leading  citizens 
were  meeting  to  improvise  temporary  markets  and 
shelters,  distribute  clothing  and  provisions,  and  take  up 
the  thread  of  life  where  it  had  been  dropped.  Auto 
mobiles,  then  in  their  infancy,  were  used  with  wonder 
ful  effect  in  saving  the  sick  and  wounded  and  taking 
away  business  papers  and  valuable  articles  which  would 
otherwise  have  been  burned.  The  services  of  the  auto 
mobile  must  be  given  credit.  The  San  Francisco 
earthquake  was  described  to  me,  with  other  witnesses 
to  back  him  up,  by  a  savant  well  known  in  the  United 
States,  Dr.  David  Starr  Jordan,  now  chancellor  of  Leland 
Stanford  University.  In  the  face  of  the  recent  ruin  of 
many  buildings  of  his  own  university,  which  spoke  for  them 
selves,  he  told  me  that  earthquakes  in  California  occur  at 
least  once  every  fifty  years.  The  earth  undulates  like  the 


1 68  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

ocean.  "They  were  real  waves  on  which  we  suddenly 
found  ourselves,"  he  said.  "The  stairs  danced,  the  doors 
were  furiously  shaken  like  a  rat  by  a  bull  dog." 

Peace  Necessary 

The  inhabitants  of  St.  Louis  have  had  their  share  of 
natural  disasters,  and  for  this  reason,  with  many  others,  they 
do  not  care  to  have  voluntary  catastrophes  as  well.  Both 
in  the  city  and  the  West  End  I  was  met  with  unmistakable 
proofs  of  regard  for  my  country  and  my  cause.  One 
Saturday  I  was  invited  to  luncheon  at  the  City  Club,  where 
business  men,  bankers,  manufacturers,  engineers,  archi 
tects  and  many  others  meet  for  the  hasty  dispatch  of  a 
few  simple  dishes  before  leaving  the  city,  where  work  always 
stops  on  Saturday  afternoon  until  Monday  morning. 
Several  spoke  feelingly  to  me  of  their  French  origin.  One 
of  them  was  a  grandson  of  the  first  doctor  who  ever  settled 
in  the  valley,  Antoine  Sangrain,  a  friend  of  Franklin  and 
relative  of  Guillotin,  the  celebrated  member  of  the  Con 
stituent  Assembly.  The  first  doctor  in  the  valley !  This 
is  a  title  that  conveys  a  great  deal  about  the  old  city  of 
St.  Louis. 

Another  explains  to  me  that  all  this  valley,  this  continent, 
has  been  metamorphosed  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  inde 
pendently  of  the  energy  of  our  pioneers.  He  brings  me  into 
touch  with  the  miraculous  consequences  of  the  application 
of  steam  and  then  electricity  in  a  new  country  where  not 
a  single  enterprise  of  the  past  circumscribes  the  establish 
ments  to  be  created ;  the  freedom  of  conceiving  everything 
with  the  material  possibility  of  realizing  everything ;  the 
most  perfected  methods,  the  latest  model  of  all  the  manu 
factures  of  the  world  as  a  point  of  departure,  and  all  this 
at  the  service  of  the  experience  and  boldness  of  a  population 
picked  from  the  most  adventurous  people  of  Europe.  All 


THE   CAPITAL   OF   OLD  LOUISIANA  169 

the  speeches  I  heard  from  business  men  at  the  City  Club 
were  so  many  denunciations  of  routine  and  of  risky  poli 
cies  that  would  endanger  the  results  attained.  President 
Robert  Brookings,  whose  guest  I  was,  expressed  himself 
very  clearly  to  the  effect  that  the  material  and  financial 
interests  of  all  the  Powers  are  now  inextricably  inter 
mingled  ;  that,  when  one  is  threatened,  some  other  is  nec 
essarily  affected ;  that  what  was  once  separated  is  now 
united ;  that  these  conditions  prevail  in  the  world  of  labor 
as  well  as  in  the  financial  and  scientific  worlds ;  that  the 
political  world  will  have  to  look  out  for  trouble  if  it  ig 
nores  this  truth  ;  and  that  this  is  a  new  factor  which  every 
government  must  take  into  account. 

These  sentiments  were  echoed  by  the  St.  Louis  news 
papers.  I  was  impressed  by  the  Saturday  special  num 
bers,  which  contain  volumes  of  reading  matter  and  an 
extraordinary  profusion  of  really  fine  illustrations.  The 
Americans  read,  or  skim  through,  a  great  many  news 
papers,  magazines  and  reviews.  They  even  read  books. 
I  envy  them.  A  book  may  have  great  influence  on  Ameri 
cans,  especially  if  it  concerns  the  building  up  of  their 
country  and  may  consequently  affect  their  future. 


Souvenirs  of  France 

I  often  hear  Tocqueville,  Turgot  and  Rousseau  men 
tioned  in  the  universities,  as  well  as  modern  writers 
and  present-day  Sorbonne  professors  who  are  personally 
known  and  appreciated.  We  have  seen  American  writers, 
beginning  with  Barrett  Wendell,  George  Grafton  Wilson 
and  Henry  van  Dyke,  come  to  Paris  to  give  the  public  the 
benefit  of  their  profound  knowledge  of  Franco-American 
relations  in  the  past,  and  propagate  their  generous  enthusi 
asm,  like  apostles,  on  their  return  home.  I  may  mention 
another  eloquent  lecturer,  Dr.  John  H.  Finley,  president 


170  AMERICA  AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

of  New  York  City  College,  who  came  to  Brouage,  in  France, 
to  buy  a  few  stones  from  Champlain's  house  so  that  they 
could  be  framed  into  the  wall  of  his  own,  like  relics ;  and 
I  was  much  touched  to  see  him  preparing  for  an  expedition 
to  Canada,  whence  he  was  to  go  down  the  Mississippi  in  a 
canoe,  following  the  same  route  as  La  Salle.  In  France 
I  have  seen  an  American,  Mr.  Ledoux,  a  New  York  mining 
engineer.  One  of  his  ancestors  was  among  the  Frenchmen 
who  left  Maine  in  the  seventeenth  century  to  colonize 
Canada  and  that  other  Maine,  in  America,  which  the 
English  made  into  "Main-land,"  and  who,  perhaps,  also 
helped  to  found  that  wonderful  town  Du  Lude  (Anglicized 
as  Duluth  on  Lake  Superior).  Mr.  Ledoux  was  on  a 
regular  pilgrimage  to  the  land  of  his  ancestors,  and  he 
found  himself  very  much  at  home  there.  I  need  not 
add  that  St.  Louis  possesses  a  Lafayette  Park,  a  Laclede 
Avenue,  a  Giverville  Avenue,  a  Gratiot  Street,  a  La  Salle 
Street,  a  Papin  Street  and  a  Chouteau  Avenue. 

St.  Louis  Exhibition.     French  and  American  Idealism 

All  these  souvenirs  might  have  been  made  the  occa 
sion  for  some  really  impressive  ceremony  at  the  St. 
Louis  Exhibition,  when  the  Americans  celebrated  the 
centenary  of  the  sale  of  Louisiana  to  the  United 
States.  It  was  a  great  chance  for  a  frank  and  free 
exchange  of  sentiments;  but  we  are  so  worried  and  ab 
sorbed  by  our  anxieties  in  Europe  that  the  opportunity 
was  missed.  We  did  not  manage  to  discover,  or  the  Amer 
icans  to  show,  what  remained  of  the  past  in  their  country. 
We  saw  nothing  but  outside  appearances.  Good  French 
men  who  could  not  speak  a  word  of  English  lost  all  ex- 
pansiveness  when  they  met  good  Americans  who  could 
not  speak  a  word  of  French ;  and  when  these  same  French 
men  returned  home,  I  heard  them  complain,  and  talk  about 


THE  CAPITAL   OF   OLD  LOUISIANA  171 

nothing  except  what  they  had  neither  seen  nor  heard. 
There  are  sentiments  which  must  be  shared  if  they  are  to 
be  understood,  and  must  be  encouraged  if  they  are  to  ex 
pand.  I  recognize  that  we  are  easily  deceived  by  appear 
ances,  and  that  our  mutual  ignorance  has  no  difficulty  in 
getting  the  better  of  us.  French  idealism  meets  American 
idealism  and  passes  by  without  seeing  it  or  recognizing  its 
own  child;  and  the  Americans,  in  turn,  cannot  readily 
recognize  the  connection  of  the  present  with  the  ancestors 
from  whom  they  claim  descent.  This  is  the  explanation 
of  many  misunderstandings  between  two  nations,  whose 
future  cannot  be  realized,  and  may  even  be  affected,  if 
their  past  be  ignored. 

3.   The  French  Spirit.     The  French  Language. 
The  Country  as  it  is 

Notwithstanding  the  succession  of  mistakes  and  weak 
nesses  that  seems  to  have  extinguished  even  the  remem 
brance  of  France  for  centuries,  something  is  left  of  her 
throughout  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  —  something  of 
the  French  spirit.  This  something,  no  doubt,  is  not  ap 
parent  to  the  traveler  who  has  good  reasons  for  not  believ 
ing  in  the  existence,  and  still  less  the  survival,  of  the  spirit. 
This  is  the  traveler  who  is  not  to  be  taken  in,  who  does  not 
mean  to  regard  the  United  States  as  anything  but  a  country 
of  dollars  and  hog  merchants,  who  generally  encounters 
only  people  of  his  own  kind  and  judges  all  others  by  them. 
It  is  nevertheless  easy  to  understand  that  there  are  two 
screens  between  the  unenlightened  foreign  visitor  and  the 
real  conditions  of  the  country  through  which  he  passes. 
He  cannot  look  inside  the  houses,  which  are  usually  closed 
to  him,  and  he  encounters  reserve  on  the  part  of  the  occu 
pants  of  those  houses  when  he  happens  to  enter  them.  How 
many  travelers  there  are  whose  knowledge  of  the  country 


172  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

they  visit  is  confined  to  misanthropic  museum  attendants 
and  the  interested  politeness  of  hotel  waiters,  or  the  rough 
manners  of  railway  servants  or,  in  the  case  of  a  business 
man,  the  bad  turns  done  him  by  a  bad  customer !  How 
many  travelers,  too,  take  advantage  of  being  unknown  to 
behave  just  as  they  please,  as  if  no  one  were  looking  at 
them,  on  the  ground  that  they  know  nothing  about  their 
surroundings;  and  how  many  excite  ridicule  or  enmity 
and  leave  behind  them  a  revengeful  feeling,  for  which  those 
who  come  after  them  are  at  a  loss  to  account !  I  remember 
the  mortification  expressed  by  an  English  statesman,  a 
friend  of  France,  when  he  encountered  his  compatriots  in 
Paris,  calmly  showing  themselves  in  the  streets  and  theaters 
in  clothes  that  would  do  very  well  for  mountain  climbing, 
and  wearing  caps  that  would  suit  either  sex.  When 
they  saw  these  caravans,  the  Parisians  exclaimed :  "Look 
at  those  English!"  and  not  one  of  them  noticed  Lord 
Salisbury  or  Lord  Granville  or  John  Burns,  who  were 
dressed  like  ordinary  people. 

The  President  Mr.  Brookings 

I  might  have  passed  by  President  Brookings  quite  often 
without  discovering  that  he  was  one  of  the  numerous  rep 
resentatives  of  American  idealism,  but  I  was  fortunate 
enough  to  be  his  guest.  He  is  a  bachelor,  and  I  can  refer  to 
his  home  without  bringing  his  family  into  the  case  and 
making  things  awkward  for  him.  He  will  excuse  me  if  I 
take  advantage  of  these  exceptional  circumstances  to  use 
him  as  an  argument.  I  should  provide  a  very  poor  return 
for  the  kindness  he  lavished  on  me  if  I  did  not  try  to  make 
my  gratitude  extend  beyond  him  —  to  his  country. 

Mr.  Brookings  is  a  young  man  of  sixty.  Tall,  slender, 
erect,  aristocratic,  healthy  and  rich,  he  has  everything  that 
can  ruin  a  man  —  charm  and  wealth ;  but  he  has  also  a 


THE   CAPITAL   OF   OLD   LOUISIANA  173 

redeeming  quality  —  a  heart  in  the  right  place.  Not  know 
ing  him  personally,  I  had  planned  to  spend  only  one  day 
with  him  and  then  go  on  to  Winnipeg ;  but  as  the  Canadian 
elections  were  at  hand,  and  the  prime  minister,  Sir  Wilfrid 
Laurier,  was  already  being  violently  attacked,  I  was  afraid 
that  my  addresses,  as  they  bore  on  questions  of  the  hour, 
and  especially  on  naval  expenses,  might  involve  me  in 
voluntarily  in  the  campaign  against  him,  and  I  decided 
to  change  my  plans.  I  accordingly  gave  up  Winnipeg 
and  lingered  in  St.  Louis,  the  paradise  of  American  hos 
pitality. 

Mr.  Brookings,  who  is  honorary  president  of  Washington 
University,  is  a  retired  merchant,  or  what  we  in  France 
would  call  a  "rentier  "  a  word  untranslatable  in  English 
and  especially  in  American.  He  is  one  of  those  prac 
tical  idealists,  good  shepherds  and  superior  guides  of 
whom  I  have  found  numerous  examples  in  every  American 
city,  so  that  he  is  not  to  be  looked  upon  as  an  exception. 
His  form  of  effort,  a  very  fine  one,  consists  wholly  of  serving 
his  country  the  United  States,  his  city  and  his  university 
in  St.  Louis.  He  is  before  everything  a  good  citizen,  and 
several  races  are  blended  in  him.  He  is  English  in  virtue 
of  his  name  and  his  experience  of  important  business  affairs, 
but  he  has  Spanish  or  Southern  blood  in  his  veins,  the  pro 
file  of  a  great  Arab  chieftain,  and  the  keenness  of  a  French 
pioneer.  Just  think  of  the  screen  that  would  have  hidden 
this  American  from  us  if  we  had  not  made  our  way  into  his 
home !  Like  many  of  his  countrymen,  President  Brookings 
knows  and  likes  France,  reads  French  and  knows  our  best 
authors  by  heart,  and  yet  he  will  not  speak  French,  through 
a  timidity  and  mistaken  diffidence  that  is  very  common  in 
Anglo-Saxon  countries,  especially  among  the  men;  the 
women  are  less  timid.  It  is  an  insular  and  childish  defect, 
which  is  still  more  noticeable  in  England,  where  there  is  no 
excuse  for  it,  than  in  America.  I  will  dwell  for  a  moment 


174  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

on  this  question,  which  is  of  considerable  importance  to 
the  progress  of  international  relations. 

With  a  few  fortunate  exceptions,  the  English  have  made 
it  a  point  of  honor  to  speak  no  language  but  their  own. 
They  cultivate  this  inferiority  as  if  it  were  a  proof  of  the 
highest  social  refinement  and  patriotic  superiority.  Let 
foreigners  speak  English  if  they  need  to  do  so !  We  have 
come  across  affectations  of  aristocratic  ignorance  in  France, 
but  in  our  country  they  smack  of  the  upstart.  What 
makes  it  still  worse  for  the  English  is  that  they  are  natu 
rally  silent  and  reserved.  When  they  have  something  to 
say,  they  do  not  venture  to  say  it  even  in  English,  and  still 
less  in  French.  They  never  ask  their  way,  especially  in 
their  own  country.  When  I  was  a  diplomatist  in  England, 
one  of  my  friends  came  to  dine  with  us  in  the  country  one 
summer  evening  and  stayed  rather  late.  I  walked  part  of 
the  way  to  the  railway  station  with  him,  and  did  not  say 
good  night  until  I  had  fully  explained  which  way  he  was 
to  go.  As  the  night  was  dark  and  the  hour  for  the  last 
train  to  London  near,  I  added  that  at  the  first  turn  of  the 
road  he  would  find  a  policeman  who  would  direct  him. 

"No,  I  know  well  enough,"  said  my  friend.  "I  will 
have  no  need  to  ask." 

And  as  I  expressed  a  doubt  he  added : 

"I  never  ask  my  way." 

"You  would  rather  get  lost?"  I  asked,  smiling. 

"Yes,"  he  said. 

Thousands  of  Englishmen  are  thus.  It  is  bad  form  to 
learn  foreign  languages  abroad.  They  have  established 
this  principle  in  traveling,  more  than  any  other  people,  of 
never  changing  their  customs.  They  travel  for  amuse 
ment,  for  rest  rather  than  instruction.  They  always  sur 
round  themselves  with  their  own  insularity,  and  this  is 
true  even  in  their  own  colonies  where  they  do  not  take  the 
trouble  to  know  the  population  whose  affairs  they  are 


THE   CAPITAL   OF   OLD    LOUISIANA  175 

attempting  to  administer.  Their  colonial  home  remains 
English  like  their  language.  Distance,  climate,  nothing 
changes  it.  Just  as  other  European  peoples,  Slavs,  Scan 
dinavians  and  Germans,  gratify  themselves  by  speaking 
foreign  languages,  so  the  English  take  their  gratification 
by  remaining  ignorant  of  them.  They  do  not  know  all 
that  they  lose,  for  instance,  in  the  struggles  of  international 
competition ;  and  that  they  lay  themselves  open  to  disap 
pointments  in  economic  and  intellectual  affairs  and  politics. 
But  so  it  is.  I  insist  upon  the  point  here  because  the  ig 
norance  of  one  is  a  danger  for  all  others,  and  because  the 
English  need  friends  to  tell  them  the  truth,  especially  when 
their  error  is  contagious.  I  will  cite  one  more  striking 
example  from  a  thousand  others. 

When  I  was  a  young  diplomatist,  one  of  my  colleagues 
on  the  Montenegrin  delimitation  commission  was  a  clever 
English  officer  of  the  Royal  Engineers.  He  was  an  ex 
ceptionally  gifted  linguist  and  had  a  young  son,  whom  he 
brought  up  at  Constantinople,  and  who  spoke  French  as 
perfectly  as  his  father.  In  due  course  the  boy  was  sent  to 
school  in  England,  where  he  had  a  very  bad  time  indeed, 
his  schoolmates  having  discovered  that  he  not  only  spoke 
French  well,  but  spoke  it  with  a  French  accent !  This  was 
voted  ridiculous,  and  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  for  him 
to  make  himself  like  the  rest  and  unlearn  French,  or,  at 
any  rate,  speak  it  like  a  good  Englishman.  This  "back 
ward  progress"  took  him  two  years. 

Many  Americans  have  inherited  this  voluntary  inferi 
ority  from  the  English.  Most  of  those  I  see — not  in  Paris, 
where,  as  every  one  knows,  there  is  a  colony  of  ultra-refined 
American  men  and  women,  but  in  the  country,  at  my  home, 
where  they  make  a  halt  in  the  course  of  their  rapid  expedi 
tions  —  carry  America  with  them  wherever  they  go.  They 
travel  with  other  Americans,  talk  to  them  only  and  know 
no  others.  They  rush  through  the  country  in  their  auto- 


176  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

mobiles,  very  much  as  they  might  in  a  boat  or  a  balloon, 
without  receiving  any  but  the  vaguest  impressions  or 
seeing  anything  but  catalogued  curiosities  and  fleeting 
visions  like  those  of  a  picture  theater  run  at  full  speed. 
This  is  a  great  pity,  especially  in  France.  To  go  through  a 
country  so  full  of  native  intelligence  and  experience  as  ours, 
without  talking  to  its  inhabitants,  is  about  as  enlightening 
as  it  would  be  for  a  deaf  and  dumb  man,  and  even  a  blind 
man,  to  travel.  Keen  as  they  are  to  pick  up  new  ideas  and 
education,  Americans  do  not  know  how  much  they  miss 
by  these  mute  expeditions  of  theirs.  They  only  see  what 
is  obvious.  When  they  go  through  a  forest,  they  know  how 
many  acres  it  covers,  but  their  eyes  are  closed  to  its  mys 
teries.  They  fail  to  perceive  the  violets  and  the  lilies  of 
the  valley  at  the  foot  of  the  oak  tree.  They  know  not  the 
inner  charm  of  things,  and  pass  by  the  sources  of  art  and 
thought;  and  they  return  home  in  the  belief  that  they 
have  traveled.  All  they  have  done  is  to  go  from  place  to 
place  and  see  ruins,  museums  and  scenes,  but  not  countries. 

Happy  Change.    A  French  Lesson 

This  state  of  things  is  luckily  changing  very  rapidly.  A 
great  many  young  Americans,  artists  and  students,  now 
live  in  Paris,  and  elsewhere  in  France,  and  in  Germany  and 
Italy.  Nevertheless  I  have  persistently  striven,  especially 
at  the  universities,  against  what  is  still  left  of  the  tendency 
to  adhere  to  English  habits  and  ideas  all  over  the  world. 
I  resorted  to  all  sorts  of  devices  to  make  my  meaning  clear, 
because  a  lecturer  is  like  an  actor  who  must  hold  his  au 
dience  at  any  cost.  I  have  even  had  to  act  my  lectures,  so 
as  to  compel  attention.  I  generally  spoke  before  an  au 
dience  of  intelligent  and  wide-awake  young  men  and  girls, 
who  were  nevertheless  artlessly  convinced  that  English  was 
sufficient  for  all  purposes  in  America.  Sometimes,  indeed, 


THE   CAPITAL   OF   OLD   LOUISIANA  177 

I  was  conscious  that  there  was  a  feeling  of  skeptical  indif 
ference  towards  me  as  a  foreigner;  and  the  long  rows  of 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  listeners  became,  to  my  mind, 
so  many  spectators,  forming  a  wall  in  which  I  had  to  make 
a  breach.  I  then  made  a  deliberate  attack.  I  began  with 
a  coup  de  theatre,  by  speaking  in  French  !  I  merely  made 
a  few  commonplace  remarks,  but  kept  on  for  some  seconds. 
Amused  surprise,  uneasiness  and  finally  dismay  showed 
themselves  in  turn  on  every  face.  There  was  a  general 
stir,  and  all  my  hearers  were  asking  one  another :  "  Can  you 
understand  him?  What  is  he  talking  about?" 

Having  produced  the  desired  effect,  I  stopped  short, 
appeared  very  much  surprised,  and  inquired  in  English : 

" Don't  you  understand  French?" 

A  few  very  timid  replies  of  "yes"  were  drowned  in  an 
outburst  of  laughter  and  "noes."  Thereupon  I  pretended 
to  be  in  great  perplexity,  walked  up  and  down  the  plat 
form,  declared  that  I  had  prepared  my  address  in  French, 
and  asked  whether  they  really  expected  me  to  cross  the 
ocean  and  the  American  continent  to  come  and  struggle 
with  a  foreign  language  while  such  clever  young  people  as 
they  might  just  as  well  have  learned  French  ? 

This  exordium,  or  rather  this  comedy  prologue,  accom 
panied  by  gestures  and  attitudes  that  can  readily  be  im 
agined,  was  invariably  successful.  Faced  by  a  well-defined 
and  unexpected  situation,  every  one  settled  down,  all  ears 
and  eyes,  to  look  and  listen.  My  audience  and  I  had 
become  friends.  I  took  advantage  of  this  to  point  out 
that,  if  I  had  been  as  they  were,  we  should  have  known 
nothing  of  each  other's  thoughts  and  desires  or  what  we  were 
worth.  Moreover,  our  best  sentiments,  if  wrongly  inter 
preted  and  taken  in  bad  part,  might  create  misunderstand 
ing  and  trouble  instead  of  friendship  between  us  and  our 
countries.  My  remarks  were  addressed  to  young  people 
nearly  all  of  whom  were  on  the  point  of  choosing  a  career 


178  AMERICA  AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

and  deciding  upon  their  future.  I  accompanied  them,  meta 
phorically,  at  the  outset  of  their  journey  and  pointed  out 
their  inferiority  to  the  young  Germans  and  Frenchmen,  who, 
in  this  age  of  manifold  means  of  communication,  would 
reap  the  benefit  of  being  able  to  act  as  intermediaries  in  a 
new  form  of  civilization.  How  can  you  be  diplomatists, 
for  instance,  I  asked,  or  consuls,  or  simply  business  agents, 
or  artists,  or  lawyers,  or  politicians  or  writers  if  you  know 
nothing  of  foreign  nations,  especially  when  they  are  all 
more  or  less  joining  hands  and  combining  forces  with  a 
view  to  future  cooperation  ? 


The  Hagw  Conferences 

I  then  gave  my  audience  some  of  my  personal  experiences 
at  the  two  Hague  congresses,  taking  care,  of  course,  not  to 
omit  the  most  amusing  ones.  I  remarked,  in  substance, 
that  in  1899  only  twenty-six  powers  were  represented, 
among  them  being  Americans,  French,  Germans,  Russians, 
Chinese,  Japanese,  Turks,  Siamese,  Greeks,  etc.  It  might 
have  been  supposed  that  this  first  meeting  would  simply 
be  a  second  edition  of  the  Tower  of  Babel.  It  was 
nothing  of  the  kind,  because  all  the  representatives  of 
these  various  nations  were  able  to  exchange  ideas  and  work 
together,  thanks  to  their  knowledge  of  at  least  one  foreign 
language,  French.  Mr.  Seth  Low  spoke  French,  so  did 
Mr.  Frederick  W.  Holls,  and  Mr.  Andrew  D.  White  knew 
it  very  well.  What,  I  asked  my  hearers,  would  you  have 
done  in  such  an  assembly?  Do  you  want  to  shut  your 
selves  out  from  the  world  by  not  knowing  what  your  com 
petitors  know?  At  the  second  congress,  in  1907,  which 
lasted  twice  as  long  as  the  first,  the  demonstration  was 
even  more  striking.  Twice  the  number  of  powers  were 
represented,  but  out  of  about  three  hundred  delegates  there 
was  practically  not  a  single  one  who  did  not  understand 


THE   CAPITAL   OF   OLD   LOUISIANA  179 

French.  The  American  delegates,  General  Porter,  David 
Jayne  Hill  and  James  Brown  Scott,  spoke  French ;  and 
several  of  them,  after  a  few  days'  preliminary  modesty, 
made  excellent,  and  sometimes  very  fine,  speeches  in 
French  —  speeches  that  enabled  them  to  win  splendid 
victories  for  their  country  and  for  international  justice. 
Most  of  the  principal  foreign  delegates  spoke  French  like 
Frenchmen  —  Baron  Marschall  the  first  German  delegate, 
the  first  and  all  the  Russian  delegates,  the  first  and  all  the 
Italian  delegates,  the  Dutch,  Spaniards,  Portuguese,  Scan 
dinavians,  South  Americans,  and  the  first  Chinese,  Japanese 
and  Siamese  representatives.  I  shall  never  forget  how  sur 
prised  I  was  when  one  of  my  Turkish  colleagues  at  the 
Hague  casually  remarked:  "The  only  books  I  read  are 
French/' 

The  first  American  delegate,  my  friend  Joseph  H.  Choate, 
took  refuge  behind  his  eighty  years  of  success  and  was  the 
only  representative  who  declined  to  change  his  style.  He 
persisted  in  delivering  his  most  eloquent  addresses  in 
English,  but  one  reason,  among  others,  was  that  I  did  him 
the  bad  turn  of  translating  as  he  went  along,  and  as  we  were 
always  of  the  same  way  of  thinking,  my  translation  was 
most  enthusiastic!  Allowing  for  such  exceptional  cases, 
all  Americans  who  want  to  serve  their  country  and  to  rank 
as  men  whose  names  will  be  remembered  should  make 
themselves  understood,  and  not  confine  themselves  to 
speaking,  or  holding  their  tongues,  in  English. 

I  wound  up  by  saying :  "Next  time  I  shall  address  you 
in  French,  and  I  hope  you  will  all  promise  to  be  able  to 
understand  me."  Every  one  was  delighted  at  the  prospect 
and  vowed  that  it  should  become  a  reality.  I  hope  that, 
if  this  meets  the  eyes  of  any  of  my  hearers,  it  will  remind 
them  of  their  pledge.  What  I  said  was  most  certainly 
in  their  own  interest,  as  well  as  in  the  interests  of 
peace. 


l8o  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

4.  American  Dewtedness.      The  Paradise  of  American 
Hospitality 

Let  me  now  close  this  long  but  necessary  parenthesis.  I 
have  said  that  at  St.  Louis  I  found  the  paradise  of  hos 
pitality,  and  the  word  fully  expresses  my  meaning.  Presi 
dent  Brookings's  house  is  both  a  home  and  a  museum,  and 
one  might  almost  call  it  a  nest.  A  splendid  portrait  by  Lar- 
gilliere  welcomes  the  visitor  on  entering.  Inside  is  an 
abode  of  silence,  calm  and  solitude,  opposite  the  great 
Park  (Forest  Park)  and  in  the  midst  of  flower  gardens 
and  green  lawns.  As  I  write,  all  is  peaceful.  The  room 
is  flooded  with  April  sunshine.  Outside  I  see  shrubs 
in  their  pretty  spring  dress,  and  I  watch  the  blackbirds 
walking  elegantly  over  the  turf,  and  the  redbreasts  and  the 
blue  jays.  The  blackbirds  in  the  United  States  are  an 
especial  delight  to  me.  They  look  as  if  they  were  varnished, 
lacquered  or  coated  with  jet.  No  harm  is  done  to  them, 
and  they  are  liked.  The  consequence  is  that  they  are 
tame,  like  the  squirrels  that  jump  down  from  the  trees 
upon  the  lawns  and  beg  almonds  from  the  children. 

We  took  an  automobile  trip  over  the  asphalt  roads  and 
went  on  and  on,  visiting  other  hospitable  homes  in  the  coun 
try,  and  seeing  more  and  more  families,  children,  flowers  and 
birds.  Outside  the  busy  ant  hill  known  as  the  City,  St. 
Louis  is  nothing  but  a  long  series  of  parks  extending  far 
beyond  the  range  of  vision.  In  one  of  these  parks  I  saw 
young  men  playing  polo,  and  elsewhere  there  was  tennis. 
At  St.  Louis  I  made  my  first  acquaintance  with  the  na 
tional  game  of  baseball.  I  dined  with  some  Americans, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jones,  who  do  not  speak  French,  but  who 
nevertheless  went  not  only  to  France  but  to  my  little  home, 
simply  for  the  pleasure  of  gathering  lilac  there  in  my  ab 
sence.  I  dined  at  the  Round  Table  Club,  where  the  best 
of  St.  Louis  society  met  in  honor  of  France. 


THE   CAPITAL   OF   OLD   LOUISIANA  l8l 

Human  Good  Will 

I  have  said  that  Americans  love  France  for  herself,  but 
this  does  not  express  the  feeling  adequately.  What  they 
like  in  her  is  her  humanity  or  human  sentiment,  whichever 
we  may  choose  to  call  it.  This  is  something  that  never 
changes,  and  has  to  be  known  or  guessed.  Personally,  I 
cannot  but  bear  witness  to  the  immense  amount  of  good  will 
towards  humanity,  fermenting  in  the  American  mind.  I 
say  this  in  spite  of  all  vague  assertions  to  the  contrary. 
The  feeling  is  proportionate  to  the  amount  of  material 
and  practical  energy  developed  by  all  Americans.  They 
are  a  maligned  race.  They  work  to  make  money  for  them 
selves,  but  they  also  unite,  first  of  all,  to  render  service  to 
the  community.  I  am  surprised  that  their  attachment  to 
the  past  has  not  led  them  to  revive  the  beaver  communities 
(destroyed  by  commercial  greed)  and  adopt  them  as  an 
emblem.  Like  the  beaver,  the  ant  and  the  bee,  they  give 
one  another  mutual  support  in  obedience  to  the  instinct  of 
self-preservation.  But  this  is  not  all.  They  soon  found 
out  that  it  was  not  sufficient  to  help  one  another,  and  that 
they  must  also  help  their  city,  their  country  and  humanity, 
from  which  their  country  is  inseparable.  Every  one  real 
izes  that  he  is  but  "an  atom  in  a  moment  of  the  world's 
existence,"  but  he  also  feels,  intuitively,  that,  during  this 
moment,  each  atom  is  a  bond  between  men  and  nations, 
between  the  past,  the  present  and  the  future,  a  connecting 
link  in  space  and  time.  Life  is  really,  to  the  Americans, 
one  continuous  flow,  as  Bergson  said,  just  as  the  Mississippi 
is  the  same  river  without  ever  being  the  same  water. 

Against  Skepticism 

While  fully  realizing  the  insignificant  but  definite  part 
they  have  to  play  in  the  work  of  the  universe,  they  are  also 


1 82  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

conscious  of  their  duty,  and  their  tendency  as  a  whole  is 
to  fulfill  it.  They  do  not  want  to  remain  mere  spectators 
of  a  general  effort,  but  to  share  in  it.  They  do  not  want  to 
dissociate  themselves  from  the  salvation  of  their  country 
any  more  than  from  the  world's  progress.  They  have  no 
use  for  skepticism.  They  all,  in  fact,  want  to  "  reduce  the 
insecurity  of  the  universe  to  its  minimum,"  as  William 
James  finely  and  luminously  expresses  it.  They  are  all  in 
favor  of  creating  what  they  call  a  general  demand  for  se 
curity  and  they  agree,  instinctively,  and  therefore  all  the 
more  thoroughly,  that  education  is  the  most  practical 
means  of  realizing  this  ideal  state. 

President  Brookings  devotes  himself,  not  to  mention 
his  hospital,  partly  to  his  beloved  city  and  partly  to  his 
beloved  university.  To  him  they  are  inseparable,  and 
form  one  objective  and  one  cult  in  his  heart,  business  man 
as  he  is.  He  is  assisted  by  all  his  friends  in  St.  Louis,  and 
especially  by  the  president  of  the  university,  Chancellor 
D.  F.  Houston,1  a  benefactor  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term. 
Like  many  others  whom  I  should  have  liked  to  mention 
more  fully,  at  New  Orleans,  in  Texas,  on  the  Pacific  coast 
and  in  Colorado,  his  one  object  in  life  is  the  high  one  of 
national  improvement. 

St.  Louis  Expansion 

My  address  at  Washington  University  was  delivered  in  the 
large  chapel  and  was  listened  to  like  a  service.  Civic  and 
moral  education  is  the  need  and  the  duty  that  brings  all 
the  heterogeneous  population  of  the  United  States  together 
into  one  body.  This  university  is  a  very  fine  one.  It  was 
built  in  the  style  of  the  universities  of  Oxford  and  Cam 
bridge,  on  a  height,  away  from  but  as  near  as  possible  to 
the  city.  Its  location  had  to  be  quiet  and  in  pure  air ;  at 

xNow  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  at  Washington.     (March,  1915.) 


THE   CAPITAL   OF   OLD   LOUISIANA  183 

the  same  time  it  had  to  be  easy  of  access,  always  a  visible 
presence  and  within  reach  of  the  inhabitants.  It  extends 
westward  beyond  the  new  city  and  beyond  Forest  Park,  a 
few  miles  from  the  last  houses  in  what  corresponds  to  the 
Bois  de  Boulogne.  A  fine  straight  avenue,  with  wide  side 
walks  set  off  by  turf  and  plants,  connects  it  with  these 
residences,  which  will  gradually  extend  nearer  to  it.  This 
is  the  plan  of  St.  Louis  in  the  future.  The  university  in  a 
few  years  will  be  its  climax,  just  as  it  now  is  the  city's  crown. 
In  order  that  this  future  may  not  be  too  far  distant,  Presi 
dent  Brookings  plots  in  all  sorts  of  ways  with  his  accom 
plice,  Dr.  Houston.  The  tramcars,  of  course,  simply  fly 
along  and  supply  the  necessary  means  of  communication, 
but  shortening  distance  is  not  enough  :  it  must  be  abolished 
altogether  by  hastening  the  extension  of  St.  Louis.  If 
need  be,  the  signal  for  emigration  will  be  given.  The  mu 
seum,  home  and  nest  created  by  President  Brookings  as 
a  place  to  end  his  days,  and  around  which  many  other 
modern  residences  were  erected  like  the  outposts  of  the  new 
city,  needed  to  be  still  further  westward  so  as  to  act  as  a 
magnetic  pole  and  draw  another  ring  of  houses  around  it. 
President  Brookings  has  decided  to  give  it  up,  and  will  sell 
it.  He  has  already  bought  another  plot  much  farther  out, 
beyond  the  university.  The  foundations  are  dug,  the 
walls  are  going  up  and  my  future  room  will  soon  be  ready. 
And  when  President  Brookings  and  I  are  but  remem 
brances  to  add  to  the  others,  his  house  will  have  become, 
through  his  wish,  the  residence  of  the  future  president  of 
the  university  and  the  starting  point  for  yet  another  ex 
tension.  Thus  is  a  great  country  built  up  by  the  devotion 
of  all  to  one  common  purpose. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE    TWIN    CITIES.       MADISON.      BASEBALL 

i.  ST.  PAUL  AND  MINNEAPOLIS.  The  Seine  and  the  Mississippi. 
American  jokes.  —  2.  THE  RAILROAD  CRISIS.  Mr.  James  J.  Hill. 
Outburst  of  prosperity.  No  terminal  facilities.  The  panic.  The 
water  traffic.  The  ladies  of  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis.  French 
influence. —  3.  MADISON.  The  lakes.  The  legislature  and  the 
university  of  the  state  of  Wisconsin.  "Our  future  is  on  the 
water."  The  constitution  of  the  state  of  Wisconsin.  Political 
economy,  social  science  and  peace  organization.  Again  the  militia. 
—  4.  BASEBALL.  The  umpire.  Early  risers.  The  international 
clubs.  The  "  Marseillaise."  Seeds  of  liberty. 

i.   St.  Paul  and   Minneapolis.      The  River.      The  Seine. 
The  Mississippi 

IT  is  a  long  way  from  St.  Louis  to  St.  Paul :  a  day  and 
a  half  by  fast  train.  The  railroad  follows  the  Mississippi. 
The  sight  of  a  river  has  always  exerted  a  remarkably  seduc 
tive  influence  on  me.  To  my  way  of  thinking,  two  rivers 
are  as  different  from  each  other  and  as  expressive  as  two 
faces  or  the  eyes  of  two  people.  Each  has  its  own  color, 
suggesting  that  of  thought,  and,  at  the  same  time,  reflects 
the  constantly  changing  light  of  the  sky.  The  river  silently 
tells  me  what  it  has  seen  in  the  course  of  its  long  history, 
and  speaks  to  me  of  the  countries  through  which  its  course 
has  led  it.  To  swim  in  a  deep  and  limpid  river,  and  dive 
under  its  surface,  temporarily  abolishes  all  idea  of  resist 
ance  and  discord  and  makes  the  swimmer  at  one  with  the 
irresistible  force  of  the  water  —  a  force  that  nothing  can 
tire  and  whose  elusive  persistence  overcomes  all  obstacles. 

184 


THE    TWIN   CITIES.      MADISON.      BASEBALL  185 

I  do  not  propose  to  compare  the  Mississippi  to  any 
thing  or  to  describe  it  as  finer  or  less  fine.  Just  below  St. 
Louis  it  is  certainly  not  so  picturesque  and  grand  as  the 
Columbia  River,  which  I  see  again  as  in  a  dream,  or  as  the 
Hudson.  It  sometimes  reminds  me  of  the  Loire  when  it 
spreads  out  on  the  soft  soil  of  its  ample  bed  and  carries  its 
sandy  burden  past  long,  wooded  islands.  It  has  no  re 
semblance  to  the  Seine,  and  it  would  have  made  De  Maupas 
sant  sad.  Foreigners  do  not  realize  that  the  Seine  has  its 
message  for  Parisians  every  day  and  every  moment.  It 
gives  them  its  gayety,  wit,  grace  and  philosophy ;  it  acts 
on  us  without  our  knowledge,  just  as  a  child's  frank  eyes 
cheer  us  when  we  are  depressed. 

Many  a  time  I  have  come  out  of  the  heat  and  turmoil 
of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  with  a  feeling  akin  to  despair 
of  human  efforts,  and  have  blushed  for  my  weakness  when 
I  saw  the  Seine,  calm  and  unconcerned,  flowing  on,  accom 
plishing  its  purpose  despite  all  obstacles,  as  it  has  done 
from  time  immemorial,  while  the  Louvre,  the  Palace  of 
Justice  and  Notre  Dame  keep  solemn  watch  and  ward. 
Many  a  time  have  I  regained  confidence  merely  through 
seeing  the  play  of  the  Seine's  hurrying  wavelets  between 
its  well-kept  banks,  bordered  with  plane  trees  and  poplars 
whose  leaves  quivered  and  saluted  like  so  many  flags. 

People  can  abuse  France  and  Paris  as  much  as  they 
please ;  the  Seine  is  their  answer,  and  it  is  only  doing  justice 
to  the  Seine  to  say  that  it  has  never  been  prettier  than 
during  the  last  few  years,  though  "we  are  passing  through 
such  bad  times ! "  as  they  always  say. 

Such  were  the  thoughts  and  dreams  to  which  I  gave 
myself  up  as  I  sat  alone  in  the  train. 

The  Mississippi  I  saw  at  St.  Louis  is  not  the  same  as  the 
Mississippi  I  found  at  St.  Paul.  It  flows  between  high 
banks  and  is  quite  wide,  though  not  far  from  its  source. 
After  leaving  the  well- watered  plains,  it  dashes  over  falls 


1 86  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

fifty  or  sixty  feet  in  height  and  wends  its  majestic  way  along 
the  bottom  of  an  immense  ravine  crowned  with  fine  old 
trees.  Great  bridges,  which  seen  from  afar  look  like  mere 
planks,  connect  its  still  wooded  shores. 

St.  Paul  is  the  capital  of  the  state  of  Minnesota,  and  it 
is  here  that  the  great  marble  and  white  granite  capitol  was 
recently  built  as  a  house  of  parliament  and  headquarters 
of  the  three  powers  that  control  the  state.  Here  also  the 
celebrated  Archbishop  Ireland  built  his  cathedral  and 
seminaries,  and  established  his  residence  and  the  center  of 
his  organization.  Under  the  aegis  of  St.  Paul,  the  patron 
saint  of  travelers  and  apostles,  James  J.  Hill,  "our  second 
Franklin, "  as  the  Americans  say,  also  fixed  the  headquarters 
for  his  gigantic  operations  as  a  builder  of  railroads  in  the 
Northwest.  At  St.  Paul  also  he  brought  together  his  col 
lection  of  pictures  of  the  French  school.  St.  Paul  has 
200,000  inhabitants,  but,  all  the  same,  its  name  is  never 
used  separately  but  always  in  conjunction  with  Minne 
apolis.  You  have  to  say  "St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis"  in 
one  breath.  The  two  cities  meet  without  mingling.  They 
are  not  rivals,  but  twins.  The  Americans,  who  are  always 
quite  ready  to  make  jokes  at  their  own  expense,  have  all 
sorts  of  funny  stories  about  this.  Here  is  one  that  shows 
the  comical  side  of  their  municipal  chauvinism.  A  patriotic 
Minneapolitan  is  said  to  have  proposed  that  the  New 
Testament  should  not  be  read  in  the  city  schools  because 
there  are  so  many  references  in  it  to  St.  Paul  and  none  to 
Minneapolis ! 

American  Jokes 

American  jokes  spare  nobody.  Audiences  enjoy  them 
immensely  and  receive  them  with  loud  and  prolonged 
laughter.  No  speech  is  a  success  without  a  few  caustic 
allusions  delivered  with  the  utmost  seriousness.  Here  is 
another  sample.  It  was  in  April,  1911,  at  the  time  when 


THE    TWIN   CITIES.      MADISON.      BASEBALL  187 

all  the  newspapers  were  talking  about  war  with  Mexico. 
It  was  inevitable,  they  said,  though  in  reality  no  sensible 
person  wanted  it.  The  eminent  orator  who  gave  me  a 
public  welcome  had  recently  returned,  like  myself,  from 
the  Texan  frontier.  He  had  read,  in  the  newspapers,  like 
everybody  else,  that  the  two  armies  facing  each  other  at 
El  Paso  were  on  the  point  of  opening  fire,  and  that  it  was 
only  a  question  of  hours.  He  had  decided  to  wait,  he 
said,  so  as  to  see  the  fighting.  Nothing  happened  on  the 
first  day,  or  the  second  or  the  third ;  and  on  inquiring  as  to 
the  cause  of  the  delay,  he  found  it  was  because  the  cine 
matograph  operator  had  not  arrived ! 

Joking  apart,  there  is  just  as  much  energy  and  future 
about  Minneapolis  as  St.  Paul.  These  two  young  cities 
have  become,  like  others,  the  center  of  one  of  the  most 
active  agricultural  and  manufacturing  districts  in  the 
world  —  a  district  which  was  nothing  more  than  a  geo 
graphical  expression  fifty  years  ago.  Then  there  were 
barely  half  a  million  inhabitants  in  the  whole  of  the  Ameri 
can  Northwest,  and  now  there  are  fifteen  millions.  All 
the  history  of  this  country  is  covered  by  the  short  span  of 
one  life ! 

Minneapolis  is  the  seat  of  the  state  university.  Its 
population,  which  is  still  larger  than  that  of  St.  Paul,  is 
constantly  increasing  as  the  result  of  its  business  activity 
(the  two  cities  together  have  nearly  500,000  inhabitants) 
and  includes  a  great  many  Scandinavians  and  Germans. 
The  point  at  which  the  Mississippi  becomes  the  great  cen 
tral  artery  of  the  United  States  is  not  far  above  Minne 
apolis.  This  is  the  commencement  of  steam  navigation, 
or  what  is  left  of  it,  and  that  portion  of  the  river  that  is 
turned  to  account.  The  St.  Antoine  Falls,  so  named  by 
Father  Hennepin,  supplies  nearly  100,000  horse  power  to 
the  world-renowned  flourmills  and  sawmills  here.  Min 
neapolis  and  St.  Paul  are  also  the  heart  of  the  Great  North- 


1 88  AMERICA  AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

ern  railroad  system  which  extends  as  far  as  the  Pacific  and 
(through  other  associated  roads)  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 


2.   The  Railroad  Crisis 

My  comprehension  of  the  manner  in  which  the  American 
railroads  have  not  merely  transformed  but  literally  created 
the  country  came  to  me  at  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis.  As 
Amos  Tuck  states  in  his  autobiography,  throughout  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  every  farm  was,  more  or 
less,  and  even  in  the  East,  like  an  island  cut  off  from  com 
munication  with  the  cities.  There  were  no  roads,  and 
vehicles  were  unknown,  except  a  cumbersome,  ramshackle 
coach  or  two.  People  went  about  on  foot  or  horseback, 
and  all  the  spinning,  knitting,  weaving,  washing,  dyeing 
and  sewing  was  done  at  home  by  the  farmer's  wife,  just 
as  in  olden  times.  All  this  underwent  a  sudden  change,  to 
which  neither  people  nor  circumstances  offered  any  re 
sistance.  No  traditions  were  affected,  no  habits  had  to  be 
changed  and  no  privilege  was  threatened.  There  was  no 
need,  as  there  was  in  France,  for  clear-sighted  poets  to 
champion  railroads  against  skeptical  statesmen.  If  M. 
Thiers  had  been  an  American,  he  would  have  been  on  the 
side  of  the  railroads,  like  Lamartine.  No  difficulties  were 
placed  in  their  way  by  large  towns,  whereas  in  our  country 
Tours,  Orleans,  Alencon  and  many  other  towns  obliged 
the  railroads  to  depart  from  what  should  have  been  their 
natural  course,  and  professed  themselves  quite  satisfied  to 
go  on  using  our  fine  roads,  with  their  inns  and  their  cele 
brated  diligences.  Thus  it  was  that  railroads  sprang  up 
simultaneously  all  over  the  United  States,  and  with  them 
stations,  factories,  people  and  towns,  around  which  crops 
also  began  to  be  raised.  The  crops,  however,  were  brought 
into  existence  as  quickly  as  everything  else  and  also  began 
to  move  in  course  of  time.  They  became  a  medium  of 


THE    TWIN  CITIES.      MADISON.      BASEBALL  189 

exchange  for  the  West  and  South  against  machinery  and 
implements  ordered  from  the  East.  There  was  a  constant 
stream  of  passengers  and  goods  in  both  directions.  Towns 
grew  up  and  prospered  on  the  track  of  this  double  current, 
which  they  also  helped  to  strengthen.  Every  new  settle 
ment  extended  at  an  extraordinary  rate;  and,  as  there  is 
a  drawback  to  everything,  such  an  outburst  of  prosperity 
itself  became  an  evil,  just  as  a  full  river  swells  into  a  flood. 
It  is  a  natural  condition  of  things,  for  which  sufficient  allow 
ance  does  not  seem  to  have  been  made,  even  in  Europe. 
It  nevertheless  largely  accounts  for  the  railroad  crisis,  or 
rather  the  scare,  experienced  six  years  ago  in  the  United 
States,  and  whose  effects  are  still  felt.  The  Americans 
allowed  themselves  to  be  caught  napping  just  as  we  were, 
and  even  more  so.  They  did  not  in  the  least  realize  the 
danger;  and  this  general  state  of  ignorance  made  the 
trouble  much  worse.  In  a  more  pronounced  way,  it  was 
like  our  own  business  crisis,  which  was  also  due  to  an  excess 
of  prosperity  and  overproduction  and,  under  the  influence 
of  panic,  was  represented  as  a  national  disaster.  The 
panic  was  obviously  accentuated  in  America  by  the  illegal 
doings  of  several  companies,  the  good  had  to  suffer  for  the 
bad,  and  those  who  had  been  too  ready  to  give  credit  had 
their  confidence  terribly  shaken ;  but  it  is  none  the  less 
astounding  that  people  should  have  quarreled  so  fiercely 
over  the  question,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  as  to  over 
look  the  natural  cause  of  the  trouble  —  the  force  of  cir 
cumstances  —  and  try  to  fix  it  on  individuals. 

No  Terminal  Facilities 

It  must  be  generally  admitted  that  the  railroads  cannot 
exist  without  what  the  Americans  call  " terminal  facilities" 
in  large  towns  for  handling  passenger  and  goods  traffic. 
This  implies  very  large  depots,  miles  of  track  and  sidings, 


1 90  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

and  the  necessary  rolling  stock,  coal  and  staff,  independently 
of  the  extension  and  proper  working  of  the  line.  It  is 
clear  that  these  terminal  facilities  ought  to  increase  in 
proportion  to  the  growth  of  traffic.  But  not  even  the 
most  extravagantly  optimistic  engineer,  or  any  one,  in  fact, 
could  have  foreseen  fifty  years  ago  that  the  space  left  for 
the  depots  would  be  too  small.  This  is  exactly  where 
houses  have  accumulated  most.  The  cities  have  grown 
up  round  the  depots  and  appropriated  the  land  now  re 
quired  for  terminal  facilities;  but,  being  built  over,  it  is 
either  not  for  sale  at  all  or  is  altogether  too  dear.  The 
result  is  that  the  railroads  found  themselves  irretrievably 
cramped  and  confined  just  as  they  were  entering  upon 
the  period  of  growth.  The  towns  stifled  them.  The  new 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  depot,  and  especially  the  Grand 
Central,  which  has  forced  its  way  up  in  the  heart  of  New 
York,  like  a  tree  that  splits  walls  and  rocks,  are  remark 
able  instances  of  this ;  and  we  are  only  at  the  beginning. 

The  general  activity  of  the  country  has  been  stimulated 
by  the  unexpected  amount  of  traffic  and  is  steadily  in 
creasing  with  the  population.  The  tide  of  commerce  is 
rising  around  every  railroad  depot.  All  the  commercial, 
agricultural  and  manufacturing  interests  are  clamoring  for 
more  rolling  stock  and  engines,  which  will  have  to  be 
ordered  without  delay.  The  result  is  a  state  of  things  that 
is  familiar  to  every  one  in  France.  Particularly  at  Minne 
apolis,  there  have  been  many  complaints  on  this  score 
from  millers,  their  grain  and  flour  being  among  the  bulkiest 
goods  the  railroads  have  to  handle.  Consignments  that 
ought  to  have  been  sent  from  Chicago  to  St.  Paul  in  a  few 
hours  have  been  known  to  take  twenty-six  days.  I  have 
been  told  of  instances  of  delay  extending  to  several  weeks 
and  even  to  several  months.  It  is  a  case  of  plethora, 
aggravated  by  the  impatience  of  the  business  interests,  that 
have  created  this  state  of  things  and  are  its  first  victims. 


THE    TWIN   CITIES.      MADISON.      BASEBALL  IQI 

Precautions,  after  all,  ought  to  be  taken  by  these  interests, 
especially  as  they  are  chiefly  concerned ;  but  they  go  on 
sending  goods  by  fits  and  starts,  in  greater  quantities  than 
the  railroads  can  carry,  and  they  will  not,  and  sometimes 
cannot,  regulate  their  orders. 

The  Panic 

The  panic,  of  course,  reacted  on  the  whole  world.  The 
heavily  laden  trains  in  America  were  followed  by  thousands 
of  empty  ones,  and  thousands  and  thousands  of  orders  were 
canceled.  A  still  greater  number  were  discontinued.  There 
was  a  general  disturbance  of  credit  and  a  run  on  the  banks. 
Ruin  and  bankruptcy  came  thick  and  fast.  And  yet, 
strangely  enough  —  but  it  is  none  the  less  a  fact  —  out  of 
ruin  came  salvation.  It  was  partly  owing  to  the  general 
stoppage  of  business  that  the  railroads  were  able  to  clear  off 
arrears  and  resume  normal  working.  Such  a  remedy,  how 
ever,  is  worse  than  the  disease.  The  resumption  of  traffic 
on  a  large  scale  cannot  fail  to  bring  a  recurrence  of  the  same 
trouble,  so  long  as  there  is  no  due  proportion  between  the 
increase  in  facilities  and  in  the  number  of  travelers  and 
quantity  of  freight  conveyed.  As  matters  now  stand,  the 
railroad  haulage  has  increased  during  the  last  few  years  to 
the  extent  of  only  2  J  per  cent,  while  the  general  output  of  the 
United  States  has  risen  15  per  cent,  from  which  I  conclude 
that  12  per  cent  of  the  freight  is  waiting  for  rolling  stock. 

There  is  still  another  aspect  of  the  question  to  be  con 
sidered.  As  we  have  seen,  the  American  railroads  connect 
the  Atlantic  with  the  Pacific  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  with 
Canada ;  but  another  system  of  navigation  besides  that  of 
sea  and  river  has  grown  up  on  the  Great  Lakes,  which 
have  attracted  the  railroads  and  provided  them  with  ad 
ditional  traffic  feeders.  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis  have 
their  port,  Duluth,  which  is  inseparably  identified  with 


I Q2  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

their  future.  Placed  at  the  end  of  Lake  Superior,  Duluth 
has  become  one  of  the  most  important  ports  in  the  world. 
The  total  tonnage  exceeds  that  of  the  port  of  London. 
To  Duluth  come  those  enormous  modern  cargo  boats  —  to 
which  I  shall  refer  later  on  —  to  fill  up,  at  the  quay  side, 
with  the  ores  required  for  the  blast  furnaces  at  Chicago, 
Buffalo,  Pittsburgh  and  many  other  places.  Here  are  stored 
vast  quantities  of  grain  that  eventually  loads  itself  into 
specially  constructed  steamers  and  then  unloads  itself  into 
mills  or  immense  elevators.  People  in  Europe  do  not  realize 
the  tremendous  amount  of  traffic  there  is  on  the  Great 
Lakes,  and  still  less  do  they  know  its  mainsprings :  on  the 
one  hand,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Duluth,  and,  on  the 
other,  Fort  William  (the  Canadian  rival  of  Duluth),  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  Milwaukee,  Chicago,  Detroit,  Cleveland  and 
Buffalo ;  but  nevertheless  it  will  be  understood,  after  what 
I  have  already  said  as  to  the  sudden  growth  of  other  and 
more  distant  cities,  that  the  railroads  were  taken  by  sur 
prise,  as  every  one  was.  It  is  also  clear  that  here,  as  else 
where,  this  outburst  of  prosperity  has  been  accompanied 
by  serious  abuses.  Trouble  at  any  part  of  a  system  on 
which  there  is  general  circulation  affects  the  whole.  The 
danger  of  trusts  obtaining  a  greater  supremacy  than  can 
be  endured  by  the  public  also  has  to  be  borne  in  mind, 
but  all  this  is  no  reason  for  making  matters  worse  by  mis 
leading  public  opinion  and  representing  the  question  as 
purely  a  political  one.  In  trying  to  straighten  out  a  very 
complicated  situation,  politics  has  only  made  confusion 
worse  confounded  and  has  resulted  in  a  repetition  of  the 
old  plan  of  throwing  the  blame  upon  the  middleman. 
"No  middlemen,"  as  a  motto  applied  to  the  transport 
business,  is  a  bad  joke,  especially  in  a  new  country  that 
owes  everything  to  private  initiative,  and  where,  for  a  very 
long  time  to  come,  it  will  be  impossible  even  to  imagine 
direct  working  (of  the  railroads)  by  the  state.  On  the  con- 


THE    TWIN   CITIES.      MADISON.      BASEBALL  193 

trary,  a  new  country  has  to  look  for  middlemen  —  which 
in  this  case  means  the  railroad  companies  and,  consequently, 
capital  and  stockholders;  and,  inasmuch  as  stockholders 
are  a  necessity,  seeing  that  even  cooperative  enterprises 
cannot  do  without  them,  it  is  absurd  to  scare  them  and  try 
to  enlist  their  help  at  the  same  time.  In  the  place  of 
practical  and  necessary  remedies,  politics  has  fostered  an 
accusing  spirit  and  an  atmosphere  of  mistrust  which  have 
become  general  through  no  just  cause,  instead  of  the  in 
telligent  supervision  that  everybody  wanted.  The  country 
now  has  all  sorts  of  petty  annoyances  and  burdens  to  bear, 
in  place  of  what  it  ought  to  have  had  —  confidence  restored 
by  impartial  organization  and  prompt  attention  to  the 
necessity  of  supplying  new  depots,  rolling  stock,  staff  and 
improvements,  all  of  which  implies  labor  and  capital  —  a 
great  deal  of  capital.  I  have  already  referred  to  the  fact 
that  wages  are  much  higher  in  America  than  with  us,  on 
account  of  the  cost  of  living  and  the  scarcity  of  labor.  An 
engine  driver  earns  six,  seven,  eight  or  as  much  as  ten 
dollars  a  day,  reckoning  his  bonuses  for  fuel  saving ;  and 
he  has  at  least  ten  days  off  every  month,  on  full  pay.  Sup 
posing  that  the  American  railroads  decided,  and  obtained 
permission,  to  make  the  extensions  necessary  in  respect  of 
terminal  facilities,  tracks,  bridges,  level  crossings,  etc.,  and 
carry  out  all  the  other  improvements  they  now  lack,  they 
would  need  200,000  navvies  and  an  incalculable  number  of 
track-layers,  carpenters  and  other  workmen.  Where  are 
they  to  be  found,  and  what  would  be  the  cost?  Two 
million  tons  of  rails,  or  two  thirds  of  the  total  output  of 
the  American  steel  works,  would  have  to  be  ordered  every 
year. 

Water  Traffic 

While    the    railroads    are    overcrowded,    water    traffic 
promises  to  develop  considerably.     The  boat  is  an  auxiliary 


194  AMERICA  AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

of  the  railroad  freight  car.  A  single  modern  barge  will 
carry  as  much  freight  as  five  or  six  big  trains,  and  this  is  the 
only  reason  why  freight  is  cheaper  by  water  than  by  rail ; 
but  if  the  barge  is  not  to  be  stopped  halfway,  it  must  have 
a  certain  depth  of  water  and  a  properly  defined  channel,  or 
rather  a  canal.  The  construction  of  a  canal  alongside  the 
Mississippi,  for  instance,  is  not  merely  a  question  of  money 
but  also  of  politics,  and  would  imply  the  adoption,  by  the 
United  States,  of  quite  a  Freycinet  scheme ;  that  is  to  say, 
six  thousand  million  dollars.  And  this  scheme  has  virtually 
failed  in  France,  as  regards  the  canals. 

Where  is  all  this  money  to  be  found?  Has  an  ironical 
Fate  decreed  that  French  capital  is  to  go  comfortably  out 
to  America  in  the  wake  of  our  heroic  pioneers,  while  foreign 
initiative  from  all  parts  of  the  world  rushes  in  to  develop 
the  inexhaustible  resources  of  France? 

In  any  case,  the  Americans  will  not  solve  their  great 
transportation  problem  unless  they  grapple  resolutely  with 
it  and  avoid  half  measures.  They  must  make  up  their 
minds  to  work  on  a  big  scale  and  adopt  big  measures.  It 
would  be  neither  good  policy  nor  good  government,  but 
rather  incoherence,  to  try  to  go  on  with  the  present  system, 
which  consists  of  clamoring  for  progress  and  at  the  same 
time  making  it  impossible ;  of  sowing  the  seeds  of  discord 
instead  of  cooperation  among  those  without  whose  assist 
ance  the  joint  enterprise  cannot  be  accomplished ;  of  setting 
railroads,  farmers,  business  men,  railroad  hands  and  the 
public  by  the  ears;  and  promising  the  country  lower 
tariffs  while  all  the  time  it  is  a  certainty  that  these  tar 
iffs  will  have  to  be  raised  in  proportion  to  business 
prosperity. 

I  have  laid  stress  on  this  question  of  transportation  be 
cause  the  difficulties  the  New  World  is  encountering  show 
how  a  good  circulation  is  as  necessary  to  a  country  as  to  a 
man  in  good  health. 


THE    TWIN   CITIES.      MADISON.      BASEBALL  IQ5 

The  Ladies  of  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis 

My  lectures  have  consisted  simply  of  facts  and  argu 
ments  on  behalf  of  a  program  of  national  interests  which 
are  common  to  all  nations,  and  I  had  to  deliver  an  extra 
one,  in  French,  for  the  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis  ladies. 
The  subject  was  Paris.  Here,  as  well  as  at  St.  Louis,  the 
Frenchman  has  vanished  but  the  French  spirit  remains. 
All  the  ladies'  dresses  and  hats,  which  I  admired  greatly, 
came  from  the  Rue  de  la  Paix,  by  which  I  mean  that  several 
dressmakers  and  modistes  go  to  Paris  regularly  every  year 
to  lay  in  a  new  stock  of  styles,  which  they  reproduce  with 
alterations  in  details  according  to  their  customers'  tastes. 
Even  this  does  not  satisfy  every  one.  There  are  a  great 
many  American  women  who  prefer  to  make  the  journey 
to  Paris,  so  as  to  choose  from  the  originals. 

Mr.  Hill's  picture  gallery  is  one  of  the  finest  in  the 
world.  At  St.  Louis  I  was  reminded  of  France  by  Lar- 
gilliere's  paintings,  and  at  St.  Paul  by  Corot,  Delacroix, 
Troy  on,  Rousseau,  Millet  and  Decaen ;  I  heard  Archbishop 
Ireland  speak  eloquently  in  French,  and  there  were  further 
souvenirs  in  the  names  of  such  places  as  Lac-qui-parle. 
Marinette,  Eau-claire,  Petit-rocher,  Fond-du-lac,  Sainte- 
Croix,  Saint-Cloud,  Prairie-du-Chien,  Faribault  and  Nicol- 
let,  as  well  as  many  others  to  which  an  aroma  of  poe 
try  still  clings  —  Defiance,  Cceur  d'Helene,  Bonneville, 
Avalanche,  Raquette,  La  Tourelle,  Grosse  Pointe,  Mille 
Hes,  Parachute,  St.  Catherine  and  St.  Augustine. 

French  Influence 

At  St.  Paul,  New  Orleans  and  St.  Louis,  too,  even  those 
who  do  not  speak  French  are  proud  of  their  descent  from 
the  French  pioneers,  as  Mr.  Hill  so  well  expresses  it  in 
his  " Highways  of  Progress."  "It  was  not  by  accident," 
he  writes,  "that  such  cruel  and  rapacious  gold  seekers  as 


196  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Cortez  and  Pizarro  took  part  in  the  invasion  of  the  south 
of  our  continent,  while  the  pioneers  of  our  Northwest  were 
Hennepin,  Marquette  and  La  Salle.  The  least  of  their 
ambitions  was  to  conquer  an  empire  for  their  king,  and  their 
greatest  was  to  win  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the  Indian 
tribes.  The  result  was  that  their  serenity  and  mental 
elevation  set  a  seal  on  the  beginnings  of  our  great  central 
valley.  After  the  explorers  and  missionaries  came  colonists 
of  the  same  type  —  men  of  strong  principles  and  splendid 
physique,  whose  virtues  have  colored  the  lives  of  their 
descendants." 

3,   Madison.     The  Lakes,  the  Legislature  and  the  University 
of  the  State  of  Wisconsin 

When  our  descendants  fly  over  Wisconsin  and  Min 
nesota  in  their  aeroplanes  during  the  starry  nights  of  the 
future,  they  will  observe  that  the  whole  district  is  studded 
with  thousands  of  lakes.  I  can  understand  why  so  many 
Scandinavians  have  come  to  this  part  of  America :  it  re 
minds  them  of  home.  Madison,  a  very  pretty  place,  is 
the  capital  of  Wisconsin,  though  it  is  only  about  one 
twentieth  of  the  size  of  Milwaukee.  It  is  pleasantly  situ 
ated  on  two  hills  surrounded  by  water,  like  islands,  and 
may  be  divided  into  unequal  portions,  consisting  of  the 
city,  —  which  is  not  very  large,  —  the  legislature  and  the 
university.  Its  monuments,  capitol,  observatory,  libraries, 
laboratories  and  museums  stand  in  friendly  juxtaposition, 
amid  trees  and  shrubs,  to  small  houses  occupied  by  teachers 
and  their  students,  to  playgrounds  and  university  clubs. 
The  whole  forms  an  amphitheater  above  the  lakes  that 
extend  in  a  long  expanse  —  now  blue,  now  gray,  now 
silvery,  now  golden,  according  to  the  state  of  the  sky- 
spread  out  along  the  parks  and  up  to  the  very  threshold  of 
the  schools,  and  summon  the  young  people  to  them. 


THE   TWIN  CITIES.      MADISON.      BASEBALL  1 97 

"Our  Future  is  on  the  Water" 

I  believe  in  the  influence  of  water  on  human  education. 
Water  and  mountains  create  energy,  self-control  and 
purity.  The  emperor  of  Germany,  to  whose  credit  must 
be  put  a  share  of  human  weakness,  shows  that  he  appre 
ciates  this  influence  by  selecting  the  coast  of  Norway  for 
his  annual  period  of  retirement.  From  this  coast  came  the 
bold  Normans  who  ascended  our  European  rivers  and 
were  the  first  to  venture  to  cross  the  Atlantic.  The 
emperor's  remark,  "Our  future  is  on  the  water/'  would 
have  been  true  enough,  had  not  this  wise  utterance 
been  translated  into  official  language  and  become 
twisted  into  meaning  "Let  us  buy  the  greatest  possible 
number  of  battleships."  At  Madison,  as  well  as  on  the 
neighboring  Canadian  lakes,  all  the  navigation  is  of  the 
most  peaceful  kind  and  is  one  of  the  most  popular  sports 
with  both  young  men  and  girl  students.  Here,  as  in  all 
the  Western  universities,  the  system  of  coeducation  of  the 
sexes  gives  excellent  results.  It  is  the  highest  form  of 
self-discipline.  All  these  young  people  swim,  row,  skate 
and  generally  exercise  themselves  on  the  water.  Every 
lake  is  made  into  a  field  of  investigation  or  a  race  course. 
Variegated  sails  dart  hither  and  thither,  even  when  the 
lakes  are  frozen.  I  remember  crossing  another  lake,  in 
Canada,  ten  years  ago  with  my  eldest  son,  Arnaud,  on  a  sail 
ing  sled.  It  was  like  a  foretaste  of  aviation.  In  summer 
whole  flotillas  of  canoes  can  be  seen  going  out  boldly  into 
the  middle  of  the  lake,  ascending  the  smallest  tributaries, 
or  lying  snugly  hid,  each  one  in  its  own  special  harbor  in 
the  shadow  of  the  banks.  Children,  youths  and  girls  all 
paddle  their  frail  varnished  canoes.  Later  on,  the  re 
membrance  of  these  juvenile  expeditions  brings  them  back 
to  the  banks  of  the  much-loved  lake.  White  cottages  and 
elegant  villas  are  already  being  built,  the  reflection  of  their 


198  AMERICA  AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

pretty  outlines  mingling  with  those  of  the  trees  on  the  sur 
face  of  the  water.  Where  the  Indians  once  had  their  tents 
are  now  college  men's  camps,  which  may  in  time  grow 
into  houses  and  cities. 

I  was  the  guest  of  the  university  at  Madison,  as  I  should 
have  been  at  Minneapolis,  if  I  had  not  been  expected  by 
friends  at  St.  Paul.  I  had  a  room  at  the  University  Club, 
where  I  enjoyed  the  cordial  way  in  which  the  teachers  of 
all  ages  and  the  pupils  lived  together.  It  is  a  life  of  the 
simplest  description,  which  suits  Americans  quite  as  well 
as,  if  not  better  than,  living  on  a  more  elaborate  scale. 

In  the  absence  of  the  president  I  was  presented  by  one 
of  the  professors,  the  very  distinguished  Dr.  Paul  Reinsch, 
to  the  state  legislature,  where  I  was  invited  to  speak,  and 
where  the  marked  predominance  of  the  German  element 
was  very  far  from  preventing  a  most  hearty  reception 
being  given  to  me,  a  Frenchman. 

The  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Wisconsin 

The  constitution  of  the  state  of  Wisconsin  is  no  doubt 
based,  like  the  constitutions  of  most  of  the  Eastern  states, 
on  the  old  charters  granted  by  England  to  her  colonies. 
I  do  not  propose  to  do  more  than  touch  upon  this  subject 
which,  though  dealt  with  in  masterly  style  by  James 
Bryce,  is  nevertheless  an  extremely  complicated  one,  as 
every  one  of  the  forty-nine  states  in  the  Union  has  its  own 
constitution.  I  will  merely  remark  that  here,  as  else 
where,  the  legislature  deals  chiefly  with  the  present,  while 
the  university  represents  the  past  and  the  future,  and  this 
is  why  I  paid  much  more  attention  to  the  one  than  to  the 
other.  And  this  is  why  the  Americans  spend  so  much 
money  on  education  and  attach  less  importance  to  politics. 
Without  going  from  one  extreme  to  another,  I  may  say 
that  that  part  of  the  constitution  of  Wisconsin  which  deals 


THE    TWIN  CITIES.      MADISON.      BASEBALL  1 99 

with  parliamentary  organization  is  inspired  by  a  rather 
unfriendly  feeling  toward  the  representatives  of  the  people. 
As  every  one  knows,  each  state  in  the  Union  is  represented 
by  two  assemblies,  the  senate  and  house  of  representa 
tives.  The  senators  and  congressmen  are  elected  directly, 
by  the  same  electors,  for  two  years.  Any  one  is  eligible 
who  has  lived  in  the  state  a  year  and  has  a  district  vote. 
Each  assembly  makes  its  own  rules,  and  validates  the 
election  of  its  members.  The  sittings  are  not  always  pub 
lic,  each  assembly  being  entitled  to  hold  secret  sessions,  of 
which  no  official  report  is  published.  The  legislature  can 
not  authorize  lotteries  or  divorces  (other  states  used  to  go 
so  far  as  to  exclude  men  who  did  not  believe  in  God,  or  in 
the  doctrine  of  future  rewards  and  punishments,  from 
official  employment) .  Each  member  has  to  take  oath  that 
he  will  do  his  duty  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  The  legis 
lature  cannot  authorize  a  citizen  to  change  his  name.  It 
cannot  permit  the  deviation  of  a  road,  order  the  establish 
ment  of  a  ferry  or  intercept  communications.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  alone  can  organize  the  state  militia,  and 
decide  as  to  its  strength,  who  shall  serve  in  it  and  what 
rules  and  discipline  shall  be  observed.  The  members  of 
the  legislature  are  paid  $500  for  each  ordinary  session. 
If  they  decide  to  hold  an  extraordinary  session,  their 
salaries  are  not  increased.  Their  traveling  expenses  from 
their  constituencies  to  Madison  are  paid.  The  constitu 
tion  stipulates  that  no  stationery  is  to  be  supplied  to  them 
at  the  public  expense. 

The  lieutenant  governor,  who,  like  the  members  of  the 
legislature,  is  elected,  is  president  of  the  senate.  He  has 
a  right  of  veto,  but  must  give  way  to  the  will  of  the  two 
houses  if  there  is  a  two- thirds  majority  of  the  members 
present. 

The  senate  consists  of  thirty-three  members ;  the  house 
of  representatives  has  one  hundred.  I  observed  that,  out 


200  AMERICA  AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

of  the  thirty-three  senators,  fifteen  were  lawyers.  The 
others  were  farmers  and  business  men.  There  were  two 
.chemists  and  only  one  doctor. 

The  senate  appoints  six  great  permanent  committees 
exclusive  of  the  special  committees  on  finance,  justice,  cor 
porations,  education  and  hygiene,  the  internal  adminis 
tration  of  the  state  (agriculture,  forests,  bridges,  roads, 
game  and  fisheries,  military  affairs  and  federal  relations) 
and  legislative  procedure. 

The  staff  necessary  for  the  working  of  the  legislature  is 
constituted  very  much  as  in  the  French  parliament.  The 
chief  clerk  corresponds  to  our  Secretaire  General  de  la 
f 'residence,  and  the  sergeant  at  arms,  and  his  " force"  of 
little  ushers  or  messenger  boys,  corresponds  to  our  Secre 
taire  General  de  la  Questure. 

The  names  of  the  representatives  of  the  Press  (most  of 
them  from  Milwaukee)  appear  at  the  head  of  the  year 
book  of  the  legislature. 

The  two  bodies  which  meet  at  Madison,  like  those 
in  other  states,  at  the  time  of  my  visit  elected  two  senators 
to  represent  them  for  six  years  in  the  senate  at  Washington. 
Eleven  members  sit  for  two  years  only  in  the  Federal 
Congress  and  are  elected  directly  by  the  people,  like  the 
state  representative  and  like  all  the  high  functionaries, 
from  the  lieutenant  governor  to  the  chief  justice  and  the 
superintendent  of  schools. 

Great  decorum  was  observed  during  the  sitting  at 
which  I  was  present  and  had  the  honor  to  speak.  The 
legislature  and,  generally  speaking,  the  state  of  Wisconsin 
being  amongst  the  most  liberal  and  progressive  of  the 
United  States,  they  are  often  given  as  a  model,  and  that 
is  why  I  thought  I  had  to  stop  a  little  to  observe  them 
with  particular  attention. 

As  usual,  I  made  a  careful  inspection  of  the  libraries  and 
collections  in  which  Americans  have  an  exceptional  talent 


THE    TWIN  CITIES.      MADISON.      BASEBALL  2OI 

for  bringing  together  the  elements  of  national  education  in 
the  form  of  well-arranged  statistics  and  documentary  evi 
dence.  This  brings  me  back  to  the  University  of  Wis 
consin. 

Madison  has  one  of  the  great  state  universities ;  that  is 
to  say,  unlike  those  that  owe  their  foundation  or  develop 
ment  to  private  benefactors,  it  was  created  by  the  state. 
It  was  opened  in  1850  and  is  kept  up  by  a  tax  on  real  and 
personal  property  and  by  subsidies  from  the  legislature.  Its 
annual  income  is  about  a  million  dollars. 

After  the  legislative  sitting,  I  attended  a  professors' 
luncheon,  at  which  there  was  a  free  interchange  of  ideas. 
It  can  easily  be  imagined  how  anxious  I  was  to  obtain 
impressions  from  such  meetings,  to  which  the  best  intel 
lects  in  the  country  have  always  brought  me  their  observa 
tions.  While  parliament  represents  the  parochial  spirit 
with  all  its  rivalry  and  its  tendency  to  exact  advantages, 
as  well  as  protection  carried  to  extremes,  jingoism  and 
bidding  for  votes,  the  university,  on  the  contrary,  is  a 
crucible  for  fusing  together  all  the  dissimilar  elements 
which,  constituting  the  population  of  the  state,  need  to 
become  nationalized  before  anything  else,  to  federate,  by 
means  of  mutual  concessions,  with  other  states,  and,  in  a 
word,  to  look  beyond  private  interests.  It  is  quite  natural 
that  the  student  should  hold  aloof  from  the  transitory  and 
necessary  excitement  of  politics ;  the  future  is  what  matters 
to  him. 

The  great  mistake  made  by  critics  who  sit  in  judgment 
on  the  United  States  of  to-day  is  that  they  do  not  see  the 
preparation  of  the  orderly  conditions  of  the  future  behind 
the  disorder  inherent  in  every  new  system.  This  prepa 
ration  is  the  essential  point,  Europe  is  very  largely  in 
terested  in  favoring  it ;  for  an  improved  civilization  will  be 
the  outcome  of  the  present  efforts,  and  every  one  will  profit 
by  it. 


2O2  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

Political  Economy,  Social  Science  and  Peace  Organization 

I  was  struck  by  the  important  place  taken  at  Madison, 
as  in  all  the  other  universities,  by  the  teaching  of  political 
economy  and  social  science.  My  addresses  were  nothing 
more  than  a  natural  complement  to  this  teaching.  To  dis 
cuss  the  production  and  circulation  of  wealth  would  not  be 
very  practical  unless  some  attempt  were  made  to  organize 
permanent  relations  between  producing  and  trading  nations. 
The  two  things  are  part  of  the  same  whole.  Peace  organi 
zation  is  the  final  chapter  of  political  economy.  All  the 
theories  of  economists  are  reduced  to  nothing  by  war. 
Madison  deserves  its  good  reputation ;  it  is  faithful  to  the 
principles  of  the  President  whose  name  it  is  proud  to  bear, 
and  to  the  policy  of  "reciprocal  good  will"  in  conformity 
with  his  1811  Message  to  Congress.  Professor  Reinsch 
helped  Mr.  Elihu  Root  to  constitute  the  Pan-American 
Union  as  a  prelude  to  something  better.  That  means  a 
great  deal. 

After  the  speeches  that  followed  the  luncheon,  I  went  to 
the  great  Gymnasium  hall,  which  had  been  made  ready 
for  my  lecture  with  a  care  that  promised  well  for  its  success. 
Everything  had  been  prepared  well  in  advance,  and  placards 
had  even  been  hung  from  the  trees  in  the  city.  The  hall 
was  full,  and  the  audience  was  a-quiver  with  the  enthusiasm 
of  youth.  There  is  no  accustoming  one's  self  to  the  feeling 
of  emotion,  which  returns  in  ever  varying  forms,  on  these 
occasions.  Here  the  audience  was  responsive,  attentive 
and  curious.  There  were  constant  outbursts  of  strident, 
modulated  shouts  of  approval,  contributed  by  every  one  in 
obedience  to  an  invisible  signal.  I  could  not  understand 
a  word  of  them.  This  kind  of  greeting  is  called  a  "  sky 
rocket,"  and  I  wonder  whether  it  is  a  survival  of  an  Indian 
custom.  Be  that  as  it  may,  I  applauded  instead  of  speak 
ing.  I  understood  the  intention,  if  not  the  words,  and 


THE    TWIN   CITIES.      MADISON.      BASEBALL  203 

that  the  ice  was  broken.  It  was  a  fine  opportunity,  I 
thought,  to  talk  of  justice  to  an  audience  of  young  men  and 
girls  who  had  probably  been  taught  to  respect  the  Ger 
manic  cult  of  brute  force ;  but  I  soon  found  I  was  talking 
to  friends,  and  I  was  frantically  applauded  when  I  said 
that  it  is  no  longer  possible  nowadays  to  enslave  a  man, 
much  less  a  nation,  and  that,  sooner  or  later,  the  liberty 
which  is  supposed  to  be  dead  and  buried  revives.  Never 
have  I  realized  more  strongly  than  at  Madison  the  honor 
of  being  called  upon  to  instruct  the  rising  generation,  and 
all  the  responsibility  incumbent  upon  the  instructor. 

In  America  music  is  not  always  so  savage  as  the  college 
students'  rhythmical  yells.  It  is,  on  the  contrary,  in 
general  favor,  especially  here  and  in  the  cities  populated  by 
Scandinavians  and  Germans.  We  will  speak  of  it  later. 
The  universities  have  their  band  and  especially  their  choral 
societies.  The  young  men  all  sing  more  or  less  —  or 
rather,  let  me  say,  nearly  all  —  and  so  do  the  girls.  Sing 
ing  is  not  only  an  art  with  them  but  a  form  of  gymnastics 
that  straightens  the  back,  widens  the  shoulders,  deepens  the 
chest,  and  gives  the  voice  more  power  and  the  expression 
more  openness,  just  as  dancing,  which  is  extremely  popular 
in  the  United  States,  gives  the  movements  more  grace  and 
assurance. 

Again  the  Militia 

After  my  lecture,  and  before  getting  into  an  automobile, 
to  take  a  trip  round  the  lake,  I  saw  the  militia  drill  —  an 
other  form  of  imparting  discipline  and  flexibility.  All  these 
young  men,  in  their  smart  blue  uniforms,  gave  me  the  im 
pression  of  a  people  that  would  rise  like  one  man  to  defend 
their  country  if  the  word  were  given.  Let  any  aggressor 
beware  of  this  much-criticized  militia.  At  5  o'clock 
next  morning  the  same  young  men  (I  did  not  see  the 
girls)  aroused  me  by  their  shouts,  as  cheerful  as  swallows' 


204  AMERICA  AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

notes.     I  looked  out  and  saw  that,  in  spite  of  the  rain  that 
was  falling,  they  were  playing  the  national  game  of  baseball. 

4.   Baseball. 

The  whole  of  North  America  is  intensely  interested,  and 
with  good  reason,  in  baseball,  a  game  I  should  like  to  in 
troduce  into  France.  It  is  played  all  over  the  United 
States  by  two  teams  of  nine  men  each,  with  an  unlimited 
number  of  substitutes,  the  various  positions  in  the  field 
being  allotted  strictly  in  accordance  with  capacity  and  long 
experience.  The  players'  object,  after  the  ball  is  in  play, 
is  to  get  first  to  the  bases  at  the  four  angles  of  a  diamond 
marked  out  in  a  very  large  inclosure.  On  each  side  the 
principal  positions  are  held  by  specialists;  on  one,  the 
pitcher  and  the  catcher,  and,  on  the  other,  the  batter. 
From  the  center  of  the  diamond,  the  pitcher  hurls  the  ball 
at  his  comrade  the  catcher,  who  stands  just  behind  the 
corner  of  the  diamond,  or  home  plate,  padded  from  head 
to  foot  and  wears  a  special  kind  of  glove  and  a  strong  mask. 
His  business  is  to  catch  the  ball,  very  much  as -a  circus 
athlete  stops  a  cannon  ball.  Between  the  pitcher  and  the 
catcher  is  the  batter,  who  stands  firmly,  waits  for  the  ball 
and  does  his  best  to  hit  it  as  far  as  possible  with  a  masterly 
stroke  of  his  bat.  If  he  succeeds,  as  he  often  does,  he  takes 
advantage  of  the  few  moments  in  which  the  ball  is  flying 
through  space  to  run  to  the  first  base,  and  then  the  second 
and  third  if  he  has  time;  but  one  of  his  far-distant  op 
ponents  catches  the  ball  and  throws  it  to  one  of  the  men 
at  the  base,  who  can  thus  forestall  the  batter,  and  it  re 
mains  to  be  seen  whether  the  batter  will  be  the  first  to 
reach  the  base.  A  whole  city-full  of  people  —  sometimes 
as  many  as  40,000  spectators  —  in  great  cities  like  Pitts 
burgh  or  Chicago,  turns  out  to  see  one  of  these  matches, 
cheer  the  players  and  give  way  to  enthusiasm  or  exaspera- 


THE    TWIN  CITIES.      MADISON.      BASEBALL  205 

tion.  The  runner,  in  his  efforts  to  beat  the  speed  of  the 
ball,  generally  throws  himself  at  full  length  on  the  ground 
and  just  touches  the  base  with  his  finger  or  foot,  or  misses 
it  by  an  inch ;  and  then  there  is  a  terrific  outburst  of  ex 
citement,  shouting,  stamping  and  gesticulating  among  the 
spectators  who  cannot  always  tell  whether  the  runner  is 
successful  or  not.  In  the  big  matches,  when  two  famous 
teams  are  playing,  and  when  one  city  is  pitted  against  an 
other,  Brooklyn  against  St.  Louis,  for  instance ;  when  two 
champion  clubs,  two  baseball  " giants"  or  "  phenomenons  " 
stand  face  to  face  in  front  of  their  anxious  supporters,  the 
crowd  cannot  contain  itself.  But,  behind  the  catcher,  a 
young  man,  quite  different  from  the  rest,  stands  motion 
less.  He  wears  a  long  coat,  a  breastplate  and  a  mask.  He 
watches  the  game,  and  when  the  disputing  over  a  run 
is  at  its  height  and  the  crowd  threatens  to  invade  the 
ground,  he  intervenes.  A  sign  from  him  stops  the  shouting 
and  restores  quiet.  He  decides  who  has  won  and  who  has 
lost. 

Who  is  this  mysterious  personage  and  extraordinary 
authority  ?  He  is  the  umpire.  He  is  selected  from  among 
the  college  students,  or,  on  great  occasions,  among  the 
most  celebrated  professionals  and  best  judges  of  the  game. 
He  is  brought  all  the  way  from  Boston  or  Chicago,  and  he 
is  paid  like  a  man  who  has  a  reputation  to  keep  up.  I 
have  more  than  once  used  him  as  an  example,  to  the  great 
delight  of  my  hearers.  I  have  demonstrated  that  if  it  is 
possible  to  stop  the  rush  of  the  baseball  players  (who 
must  not  dispute  the  umpire,  even  if  he  is  wrong)  and  re 
strain  crowds  electrified  by  the  excitement  of  the  game,  it 
is  much  less  difficult  to  stop  two  equally  civilized  nations 
whose  governments  are  preparing  to  mobilize  them.  It  is 
a  question  of  education  in  governmental  responsibility  —  a 
question  of  mutual  interest  properly  understood,  and  also 
of  discipline.  After  I  had  demonstrated  this  proposition 


2O6  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

all  over  the  United  States,  an  objection  was  raised,  to  the 
effect  that  the  umpire  is  sometimes  rather  badly  treated 
by  the  crowd.  "Kill  the  umpire!"  was  heard  not  very 
long  ago.  In  America,  no  doubt,  as  in  other  countries,  a 
man  who  has  lost  his  case  does  not  deny  himself  the  pleas 
ure  of  saying  what  he  thinks  about  the  judge,  but  it  is 
none  the  less  true  that  the  whole  organization  of  baseball, 
which  is  no  less  popular  than  the  barbarous  bull-fighting 
in  Spain  and  is  infinitely  more  general,  is  based  on  absolute 
and  undisputed  obedience  to  the  umpire.  The  same  is  true 
of  many  other  games,  notably  football.  It  is  an  excellent 
form  of  physical  and  moral  training. 

Early  Risers 

In  this  connection  I  may  remark  that  the  Americans  are 
early  risers  —  another  point  they  have  in  common  with  the 
French.  A  nation  that  rises  early  is  not  a  frivolous  but  an 
industrious  one,  and  ought  to  succeed.  One  day  at  The 
Hague  I  heard  one  of  my  colleagues,  who  was  of  course 
one  of  my  compatriots,  criticizing  the  youth  of  his  country. 
One  of  the  foreigners  present,  the  first  Japanese  delegate, 
differed  from  him.  "I  went  through  part  of  my  course  of 
study,"  he  said,  "in  the  Latin  quarter,  with  many  other 
foreigners,  and  I  noticed  that  the  French  were  always  up 
first."  France  is  the  object  of  all  sorts  of  purely  superficial 
criticisms.  Because  Paris,  or  rather  a  part  of  Paris,  the 
boulevards,  is  a  meeting  place  of  foreigners  and  provincials, 
who  come  here  to  spend  their  money  or  go  through  their 
apprenticeship  to  "life,"  people  imagine  that  this  kind  of 
life  is  that  of  the  French  nation.  The  dyspeptic  reveler 
who  returns  home,  plucked  bare,  inveighs  against  the 
modern  Babylon.  He  has  seen  all  the  cabarets,  low 
music  halls  and  forbidden  places,  drunk  the  cup  of  morbid 
curiosity  to  the  dregs,  and  religiously  gone  through  the 


THE    TWIN  CITIES.      MADISON.      BASEBALL  207 

round  of  pleasure ;  and  then  he  finds  fault,  not  with  him 
self  or  with  other  foreign  revelers,  but  with  France. 

The  International  Clubs 

After  the  dinner  and  lecture  at  the  club  I  was  urged  to 
finish  the  evening  at  another  club,  the  International.  It 
was  not  the  first  I  had  visited  in  the  United  States.  Noth 
ing  brings  out  more  clearly  the  spirit  of  tolerance  and  fra 
ternity  prevailing  in  American  universities  than  these  asso 
ciations,  which  enable  young  Americans  of  different  states 
not  only  to  meet  one  another,  but  to  come  into  contact  with 
foreign  students  and  to  know  and  like  them.  The  presi 
dent  of  the  club  at  Madison  was  a  very  cultured  Chinese, 
C.  C.  Wang,  and  its  members,  in  addition  to  Americans, 
included  Russians,  Poles,  Swiss,  Belgians,  Italians,  Japanese, 
even  Englishmen,  Indians,  Malagasys  and  Filipinos  —  sixty 
different  nationalities  or  races. 

The  "Marseillaise" 

These  young  men  greeted  me  with  the  "  Marseillaise." 
They  pressed  my  hands  as  if  I  had  been  Jean  Jacques 
Rousseau !  Whatever  evil  may  be  said  against  France  in 
their  hearing,  they  will  pay  no  attention.  France  is,  to 
them,  not  a  country  but  an  idea,  a  program  and  a  word  of 
command.  France  means  revolution,  and  they  know  well 
enough  that  society  will  never  have  anything  good  to  say 
about  revolutions. 

Seeds  of  Liberty 

At  the  same  time  I  could  not  help  giving  some  friendly 
advice  to  these  young  men.  I  tremble  for  their  future, 
because  I  can  see  the  seed  of  liberty,  which  they  cultivate 
in  these  American  universities,  germinating  in  them ;  and 
it  is  probable  that  when  they  return  home,  this  seed  will 


208  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

bear  fruit  in  the  shape  of  insurrection,  sedition  and  every 
thing  that  brings  men  to  the  gallows.  They  merely  smiled 
at  my  warnings.  "Look  out,"  I  said,  "when  you  return 
home,  and  don't  repeat  all  that  you  hear  here."  One  of 
them  cleverly  replied :  "We  will  retain  the  impression  and 
not  the  words." 

And  now  for  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin's  German  city, 
where  at  least  three  fourths  of  the  inhabitants  are  Ger 
mans.  I  have  been  preparing  for  this  visit  for  a  long  time. 
I  shall  now  be  able  to  take  a  good  look  at  what  was  the 
triumph  but  is  now,  in  my  opinion,  the  decline  of  German 
influence.1 

1 1  have  not  considered  it  right  to  change  a  single  word  in  the  following 
chapter.  The  war  has  brought  its  confirmation  and  justified  the  warning 
that  I  wrote.  I  confine  myself  to  a  simple  summary,  as  conclusion  for  the 
chapter  of  the  incontrovertible  proofs  that  have  been  established  :  First, 
that  a  great  majority  of  the  German  people  did  not  wish  for  war;  second, 
that  Germany  has  been  led  to  her  ruin  by  German  militarism.  (March, 


CHAPTER  XI 

MILWAUKEE.      THE    GROWTH   AND   DECLINE   OF   GERMAN 
INFLUENCE 

i.  THE  CITY  AND  THE  SURROUNDINGS.  The  well-deserved  success  of 
the  Germans.  France' s  disasters,  but  no  decadence.  The  great 
revenge.  German  militarism  against  German  idealism.  The 
Americans  and  the  Alsace-Lorraine  question.  Tired  of  "Might 
makes  Right."  German  imperialism,  a  threat  and  a  disap 
pointment. —  2.  THE  CATASTROPHE.  The  balance  sheet  of  war. 
The  culmination  of  German  militarism. 

i.    The  City  and  the  Surroundings 

THE  hospitality  of  Milwaukee  was  no  less  anticipatory 
than  that  of  the  other  cities.  Representatives  of  the  Press 
came  halfway  to  meet  me  and  subject  me  in  the  train  to 
the  delights  of  being  interviewed.  One  of  them,  the  editor 
of  the  leading  German  paper,  did  his  work  so  well  —  how 
he  managed  it  I  fail  to  understand  —  that  I  had  been  in 
Milwaukee  only  two  hours  when  I  saw  my  "statements" 
standing  out  as  the  "splash"  in  large  type  on  the  front 
page  of  his  paper.  My  remarks  were  reproduced  with 
scrupulous  accuracy,  although  the  subject  was  a  delicate 
one :  the  good  influence  that  might  be  exerted  by  broad- 
minded  Germans  in  America  over  Germans  in  Europe. 

A  deputation  from  my  reception  committee  met  me  at 
the  depot,  and  drove  with  me  to  the  City  Club,  where  I 
had  promised  to  speak  on  municipal  organization  in  France. 
After  my  first  address,  I  made  a  motor  trip  along  the  lake 
side,  or  rather  I  should  have  made  it  had  we  not  been 
p  209 


210  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

stopped  by  the  fog  that  hid  sky,  water,  rocks  and  trees 
from  view.  All  we  could  do  was  to  reach  the  girls'  col 
lege  (Downer  College),  where,  as  it  happened,  the  boys 
from  a  neighboring  school  had  come  to  give  a  concert. 
In  place  of  coeducation,  quite  a  different  system  prevails 
here.  The  girls  are  perfectly  free,  and  they  look  after 
their  own  discipline,  without  assistance  from  their  teachers, 
but,  except  as  regards  visits  and  occasional  concerts,  the 
rule  is  that  no  man,  not  even  as  a  teacher,  shall  enter  the  col 
lege.  This  is  a  very  strict  rule,  forming  part  of  a  system 
which  the  excellent  principal,  Miss  Ellen  Sabin,  summed 
up  for  my  benefit  as  follows  :  "No  men,  no  wine,  no  cards." 
The  result  was  a  lay  convent.  In  the  evening  I  once  more 
delivered  my  address  in  a  large  church,  known  as  the 
"Plymouth  Church"  ;  and  I  am  still  filled  with  admiration 
for  the  tolerance  with  which  my  audience,  consisting  largely 
of  Germans,  received  my  remarks  and  even  my  criticisms ; 
and  how  warmly  they  approved  my  expression  of  the  desire 
for  a  mutually  acceptable  reconciliation,  based  on  mutual 
concessions,  between  France  and  Germany,  in  the  interest 
of  the  world  at  large. 

To  go  from  Madison  to  Milwaukee  is  like  returning  to 
town  from  the  country.  Milwaukee  is  a  large  port  that 
has  become  a  great  city,  thanks  to  the  traffic  on  Lake 
Michigan  and  the  other  Great  Lakes,  forming  as  they  do  an 
inland  sea  into  which  the  Milwaukee  River  flows.  It  acts 
as  a  canal,  like  the  Meuse  at  Rotterdam,  and  the  great 
volume  of  water  from  this  river  and  its  tributaries  finds 
its  way  into  the  heart  of  the  business  districts.  The  en 
trance  to  the  port  and  the  canals  is  protected  by  massive 
breakwaters,  and  the  largest  vessels  can  moor  at  the  rail 
road  wharves,  close  to  the  stores  and  factories.  The 
German  breweries  at  Milwaukee  supply  a  large  part  of 
the  United  States,  without  reckoning  the  flour,  grain  and 
pork  sent  out  from  this  city.  Any  one  might  spend  hours 


MILWAUKEE    AND   ITS    SURROUNDINGS  211 

in  following  the  movements  of  these  monster  ships  in 
Milwaukee.  Swing  bridges  of  the  most  modern  kind  lift 
up  or  open  to  let  them  pass.  Roadways,  over  which 
electric  tramways  run,  stand  bolt  upright  or  move  on  a 
pivot  over  an  archway  to  make  room  for  them ;  and  when 
the  boats  have  gone  through,  the  great  channel  is  bridged 
again,  and  traffic  over  it  is  resumed.  This  combina 
tion —  which  is  also  carried  out  with  the  same  success 
in  Germany  —  of  water,  road  and  rail  traffic  partly  ac 
counts  for  the  splendid  development  of  Milwaukee.  Trad 
ing  vessels  are  not  the  only  ones  to  go  backwards  and 
forwards  through  the  city.  When  the  fog  clears  away, 
one  can  see  all  sorts  of  pleasure  boats  and  attractive  ex 
cursion  steamers  with  three  or  four  decks.  These  are 
utilized  on  holidays  by  all  the  young  people  in  the  city 
and  their  parents,  not  to  mention  a  band,  to  go  to 
various  places  on  the  banks  of  the  lake  and  forget  the 
twenty-story  houses,  the  noise  and  the  strenuous  work 
of  factory  or  office. 

The  surroundings  of  Milwaukee,  especially  the  precipi 
tous  shores  of  the  lake,  are  very  picturesque.  On  a  fine 
day  they  suggest  the  Riviera  or  Biarritz,  and  in  summer 
they  provide  sandy  beaches  and  sea  bathing.  There  is  a 
general  tendency  among  Americans  to  avoid  the  original 
mistake  —  due  to  the  lack  of  rapid  transport  at  that  time 
—  of  crowding  houses  and  factories  too  closely  together 
without  leaving  room  even  for  a  tree,  as  in  New  York. 
Milwaukee  is  surrounded  by  parks  with  running  water 
and  many-colored  vegetation.  Generally  speaking,  open 
spaces,  playgrounds  and  places  for  promenades,  excur 
sions  and  camping,  such  as  Yellowstone  Park,  have  become 
one  of  the  principal  subjects  of  interest  and  one  of  the 
main  factors  in  the  health  and  national  activity  of  the 
United  States.  Henceforward,  the  people  will  live  not  on 
top  of  but  beside  one  another. 


212  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Gymnastic,  rifle  and  musical  clubs,  similar  to  those  in 
Germany,  flourish  here,  like  German  trade;  for  it  is  clear 
that  every  German  in  the  United  States  is  a  client  and  a 
business  representative  of  his  mother  country.  He  calls 
for  and  places  German  goods.  He  creates  needs  similar 
to  his  own ;  he  provides  his  countrymen  with  information 
as  to  American  habits  (I  know  many  German  cities  of 
to-day  which  remind  me  of  the  finest  American  towns) ,  and 
he  explains  to  them  the  best  means  of  obtaining  a  hold 
on  the  American  market.  It  might  be  hastily  concluded, 
from  this,  that  Milwaukee  is  a  German  city,  although 
founded  by  a  Frenchman,  Solomon  Juneau,  whose  name 
we  have  already  met  with  on  the  Pacific.  Milwaukee,  in 
1835,  was  merely  a  depot  for  hides.  It  now  has  a  popu 
lation  of  nearly  400,000,  of  whom  300,000  are  Germans, 
the  rest  being  Americans,  Scandinavians,  etc. ;  but  the 
question  is  to  know  what  a  German  city  of  French  origin 
in  the  United  States  is  becoming.  It  may  be  with  towns 
as  with  plants.  French  seed  brings  forth  different  fruits 
in  foreign  soil  and  has  to  be  renewed.  In  any  case,  I  pro 
pose  to  discuss  this  question  impartially.  France,  Ger 
many  and  the  United  States  have  reached  a  sufficiently 
high  degree  of  civilization  to  be  told  the  truth. 

The  Well-deserved  Success  of  the  Germans 

The  Germans  have  succeeded  because  they  deserved  to 
succeed.  Toughened  by  their  centuries  of  resistance  to  the 
hostility  of  men  and  of  circumstances,  and  confident  in  their 
future  they  produce  plenty  of  fine  children,  who  inherit  their 
good  constitutions.  Whilst  the  population  of  France,  deci 
mated  by  fruitless  wars  and  exhausted  by  its  incessant  effort 
to  fill  up  the  gaps  and  by  being  kept  in  a  continual  state 
of  tension,  fails  to  increase,  Germany's  is  growing  every 
year  to  the  extent  of  several  French  departments,  and  it 


MILWAUKEE   AND   ITS    SURROUNDINGS  213 

is  quite  in  the  natural  order  of  things  that  Germans  should 
take  the  places  formerly  held  by  peasants  from  Normandy 
and  Anjou.  These  German  emigrants,  who  were  plain, 
unpretentious  workers,  appeared  on  the  scene  at  a  time 
when  the  United  States  needed  farmers.  They  rendered 
immense  services  in  the  agricultural  districts,  and  after 
wards  they  populated  the  cities  to  which  they  brought 
their  methods,  their  traditions  and  their  habits  of  organiza 
tion  and  association.  While  I  was  in  New  York,  I  saw  a 
gathering  of  German  societies  in  America,  of  which  there 
were  no  less  than  5000.  They  are  numerous  at  Milwaukee 
and  are  deserving  of  praise.  The  results  obtained  by  the 
musical  clubs,  for  instance,  are  admirable.  In  educational 
matters  in  general,  and  particularly  the  application  of 
social  science  principles  from  infancy  onwards,  they  have 
obtained  general  recognition  for  their  kindergarten  work 
and  their  organization  of  games,  hygiene,  etc.,  in  schools. 
As  regards  secondary  and  higher  education,  the  facts  are 
self-evident.  Let  us  take  as  an  example  the  universities 
founded  in  the  United  States  in  the  course  of  the  last 
century.  Where  were  they  to  look  for  guidance?  Ma 
dame  de  Stael  had  made  Germany  known  to  them,  and 
it  is  clear  that  the  great  universities  of  the  Germanic 
Confederation  were,  together  with  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
models  all  ready  for  a  group  of  young  federated  and  demo 
cratic  states,  rootedly  hostile  to  the  imperial  system  of 
concentration.  We  must  not  forget,  also,  that  these 
young  states  have  not  yet  shown  themselves  either  able 
or  willing  to  agree  to  the  constitution,  at  Washington,  of 
a  great  national  university  superior  to  all  the  others.  They 
took  care  not  to  go  to  Paris  for  a  system  of  which  they 
were  more  afraid  than  of  any  other,  especially  as  they  had 
only  to  choose  among  Gottingen,  Konigsberg,  Jena,  Leip 
zig,  Heidelberg,  Tubingen,  Bonn  and  many  other  inde 
pendent  universities.  The  foreign  policy  of  the  Second 


214  AMERICA  AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Empire,  beginning  with  our  unfortunate  expedition  to 
Mexico,  was  hardly  calculated  to  reconcile  Americans  to 
us,  not  to  mention  our  then  general  disdain  for  foreign 
questions,  our  ignorance  of  foreign  languages,  and  our 
somewhat  natural  dislike  of  leaving  our  country.  The 
result  was  that,  though  they  had  received  from  France  so 
many  seeds  which  had  brought  forth  fruit  abundantly,  the 
Americans  nevertheless  sought  elsewhere  for  emigrants  and 
ideas. 

France's  Disasters,  but  no  Decadence 

The  fact  is  that  as  our  disasters  coincided  with  Germany's 
victories,  the  Americans  more  or  less  believed,  like  many 
others,  in  France's  decadence;  but  they  are  getting  over 
this  mistake,  and  now  we  find  France  giving  them  the  very 
best  kind  of  higher  education  and  beginning  to  take  her 
great  revenge.  Misfortune  develops  nations,  as  it  does 
the  best  kind  of  men,  while  success  is  a  shoal  on  which  they 
are  apt  to  run  aground.  In  spite  of  appearances,  every 
one  is  now  compelled  to  admit  that  France  is  not  a  frivolous 
nation,  and  that,  on  the  contrary,  she  must  be  extraordi 
narily  industrious  and  idealistic  to  have  once  more  and  so 
completely  recovered  from  her  disasters  in  the  space  of 
forty  years.  In  spite  of  incessant  attacks,  which  we  our 
selves  began,  we  have  seen  the  French  Republic  take  over 
and  pay  the  debts  bequeathed  to  it,  —  the  ransom  of  the 
Empire,  —  reorganize  its  finances  and  its  army,  complete 
its  railways,  regenerate  its  educational  system,  introduce 
new  methods  of  cultivation  and  build  up  a  new  colonial 
empire  for  itself  in  Africa  and  Asia.  In  spite  of  all  this, 
and  notwithstanding  the  increase  in  various  forms  of 
rivalry  that  spring  up  on  all  sides  and  lead  to  inevitable 
complications,  we  have  been  wise  enough  to  regain,  little 
by  little,  what  we  had  lost  in  the  world's  estimation,  con 
clude  alliances,  make  friendships  and  gain  general  esteem. 


MILWAUKEE   AND   ITS    SURROUNDINGS  2 15 

Our  savants,  such  as  Berthelot,  Pasteur  and  Curie,  have 
rendered  world-wide  service.  We  have  shown  that  we 
possess  artists  and  men  of  action.  Our  explorers  have 
proved  themselves  as  great  as  their  predecessors.  Our 
aviators  and  sailors  have  defied  death  in  the  air  and  under 
the  waters,  and  our  spirit  of  inventiveness  has  evinced 
itself  in  every  field  of  activity.  The  combined  effect  of 
all  these  triumphs  of  individual  effort  by  Frenchmen  has 
eventually  proved  greater  than  those  of  brute  force,  and 
since  then,  the  Germans  have  begun  to  feel  the  effects 
of  a  moral  malady  that  they  cannot  understand.  It  can, 
nevertheless,  be  explained.  They  are  paying  the  price 
of  their  victories,  as  all  conquerors  do,  and  the  greater 
their  pride  the  higher  will  be  the  price. 
Let  us  examine  the  facts : 

The  Great  Revenge 

People  are  tired  of  German  pride,  and  it  has  been  a 
disappointment  to  the  world  at  large.  The  triumph  of 
mere  force  has  a  brutalizing  effect.  It  succeeded  in  im 
posing  on  superficial  minds,  and  even  on  the  universities, 
for  a  time,  but  it  has  finally  created  a  feeling  of  aversion, 
because  it  ends  in  a  contradiction,  and  consequently  paraly 
sis,  of  the  progress  of  science.  This  is  true  everywhere,  and 
even  in  Germany,  where  the  highest  thinkers  have  come 
more  or  less  under  the  ban  of  suspicion,  —  I  might  almost 
say  a  moral  boycott,  —  to  the  great  disadvantage  of  the 
country's  intellectual,  moral  and  material  progress.  The 
immense  development  of  German  commerce  during  the 
last  few  years  is  a  proof  of  admirable  vitality,  but  it  is  all 
the  more  regrettable  to  see  this  vitality  directed  towards 
violence,  instead  of  being  beneficent,  as  it  should  be. 
There  is  a  general  grudge  against  Germany  for  turning 
her  back  on  her  vocation. 


2l6  AMERICA   AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

German  Militarism  against  German  Idealism 

German  militarism  is  in  a  fair  way  to  stifle  German 
idealism,  and  this  is  a  spectacle  that  causes  a  feeling  of  re 
volt  among  many  men  with  independent  habits  of  thought. 
It  has  been,  until  now,  more  or  less,  a  merely  internal  re 
volt,  no  doubt,  but  it  is  not  confined  to  mental  processes. 
The  mayor  of  Milwaukee,  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  was  a 
socialist,  and  so  was  the  senator  for  Milwaukee  —  a 
striking  coincidence  in  so  German  a  community.  Here 
is  another  example.  Germany,  while  eager  for  expansion, 
does  not  admit  that  Alsace  and  Lorraine  are  justified  in 
complaining  that  their  inhabitants,  a  fine  class  of  people, 
were  dealt  with  like  a  flock  of  sheep,  just  after  the  United 
States  had  gone  through  civil  war  for  the  sake  of  negro 
emancipation.  Germany  compels  Alsatians  to  repudiate 
even  their  family  ties  and  to  break  with  their  most  sacred 
affections  for  the  sake  of  calling  themselves  German.  She 
makes  them  write  their  names  in  German  and  speak  Ger 
man.  She  treats  Danes  and  Poles  in  the  same  way. 
She  does  not  realize  that,  by  so  doing,  she  alienates  not 
so  much  France  (let  us  leave  my  country  outside  the 
argument),  Alsace,  Poland  and  Denmark,  but  also  the 
spirit  of  the  times,  including  the  liberal  spirit  in  Germany. 
However  indulgent  public  opinion  may  be,  it  is  being 
everywhere  operated  upon  by  ferments  which  escape  the 
well-known  clear-sightedness  of  governments,  but  are  all  the 
more  to  be  feared.  The  final  result  is  that  all  Germany's 
strength  is  turned  against  herself  and  morally  excludes 
her  from  a  world  in  which  she  is  looking  for  her  position. 

Let  me  repeat  that,  in  saying  this,  I  am  not  speaking 
merely  as  a  Frenchman,  but  in  the  general  interest,  assum 
ing  that  I  can  cease  to  take  to  heart'  the  grievances  of 
Alsace  and  Lorraine  after  acting  with  my  friends  on  behalf 
of  the  Bulgarians,  Serbians,  Greeks,  Armenians,  Jews  and 


MILWAUKEE   AND   ITS    SURROUNDINGS  2 17 

Arabs.  As  time  goes  on,  the  Alsace-Lorraine  question 
becomes  more  and  more  acute  for  Germany.  We  see  it 
every  day.  It  does  not  arise  between  France  and  Germany, 
inasmuch  as  it  was  settled  by  treaty;  it  stands  between 
Germany  and  Alsace,  between  Germany  and  all  partisans 
of  individual  liberty  throughout  the  world.  It  is  something 
more  than  the  Dreyfus  case,  and,  like  it,  cannot  be  disposed 
of  by  the  mere  assertion  that  it  has  no  existence. 

The  Americans  and  the  Alsace-Lorraine  Question 

It  was  possible  for  Americans  to  ignore  the  Alsace- 
Lorraine  question  so  long  as  it  concerned  only  France  and 
Germany.  They  were  careful  not  to  take  sides.  They 
were  neutral,  as  they  had  an  evident  right  to  be.  They 
supposed  that  this  was  the  way  to  obtain  peace  in  course 
of  time;  but  they  will  now  be  obliged,  like  every  other 
nation,  to  say  what  they  think  about  it.  They  are  already 
giving  judgment  inwardly.  They  have  done  so  by  the 
mere  operation  of  their  system  of  liberty,  and  in  this  way 
they  are  affording  constant  encouragement  to  some,  and 
fresh  cause  for  irritation  to  others,  in  Germany. 

One  single  conviction  is  sufficient  to  enlighten  millions 
of  independent  minds.  No  one  can  estimate  the  effect 
of  a  protest  that  acts  like  a  continual  conspiracy.  It  is 
the  drop  of  water  that  gradually  wears  away  the  dike 
and  demolishes  it.  I  met  a  Dane  who  had  been  an  exile 
from  his  country  since  the  war  in  1864,  and  naturalized 
himself  as  an  American  rather  than  become  a  German. 
He  has  not  confined  himself  to  regretting  his  country,  but 
for  nearly  fifty  years  he  has  carried  on  a  constant  and 
vigorous  campaign,  by  speeches  and  writings,  and  has 
met  with  considerable  success  in  spreading  his  hatred  for 
Germany.  This  is  what  no  government  foresees  as  a 
consequence  of  a  treaty. 


2l8  AMERICA  AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

One  day,  while  I  was  traveling  between  Pittsburgh  and 
Philadelphia  and  was  reading  my  mail,  a  little  old  man 
came  up  to  me  and  asked  me,  in  French,  if  he  might  see 
my  French  newspapers.  He  told  me  that  he,  like  this 
Dane,  had  left  his  country,  Alsace,  rather  than  become  a 
German,  but  he  was  of  a  less  combative  nature,  though  he 
was  delighted  to  see  how  the  Prussification  of  Alsace  had 
failed.  He  told  me  about  the  pilgrimages  he  made  regularly 
to  his  home  in  Phalsbourg.  "  When  I  was  a  boy,"  he  said, 
"  France  let  us  speak  German,  French  or  Alsatian  just  as 
we  pleased,  and  we  did  not  use  French  much ;  but  now 
that  German  is  obligatory,  do  you  know  what  happens? 
The  children  learn  German  at  school,  the  shop-signs  are 
in  German,  and  the  streets  are  German,  by  order,  but 
every  one  speaks  French  indoors." 

Tired  of  "Might  makes  Right" 

A  great  many  people  are  actively  anti-German  or  sym 
pathize  with  anti-German  ideas  in  other  spheres,  even, 
and  especially,  among  those  who  admire  German  culture. 
The  German  idealism  with  which  they  are  saturated  has 
made  them  all  the  more  severe  in  their  condemnation  of 
Germany's  reversion  to  brute  force.  They  are  visibly 
taking  the  French  side,  and  they  are  being  sent  to  us  by 
the  Germans  themselves. 

"  We  are  tired  of  it,"  said  one  of  them  to  me,  at  Harvard. 
"Tired  of  what?" 

"Tired  of  'might  makes  right/" 

Another,  at  Baltimore,  —  an  octogenarian  Hellenist, 
who  enjoys  the  veneration  of  generations  inspired  by  his 
views,  —  cannot  console  himself  for  what  he  calls  the 
degradation  of  Germany.  He  feels  that  the  ideals  of  his 
youth  have  been  profaned.  Germany  was  the  cradle 
of  his  learning  and  intellect.  "I  cannot  recognize  the 


MILWAUKEE    AND    ITS   SURROUNDINGS  2IQ 

country,"  he  told  me.  "I  have  ceased  going  there.  I 
cannot  even  understand  their  language  now.  They  have 
invented  new  words  to  suit  their  new  state  of  mind  and 
to  express  vulgar  ideas.  They  have  no  interest  in  anything 
but  lucrative  careers,  profits  and  money  making.  They 
have  lost  their  ideal,  and  they  don't  care.  The  greatest 
chastisement  is  the  abasement  of  the  national  character." 
Let  the  German  government  beware,  and  cease  to  com 
plain  of  the  world's  ill  will.  The  government  is  alone 
responsible  for  the  adverse  judgments  which  are  becoming 
universal  and  are  delivered  quite  as  often  in  Germany 
as  in  the  United  States,  and  perhaps  more  often.  Many 
Germans  suffer  like  the  old  American  professor  at  Balti 
more  and  feel  humiliated  by  the  prevailing  discredit  attach 
ing  to  everything  they  have  learned  to  respect.  This  does 
not  apply  merely  to  " intellectuals."  The  people  are 
instinctively  on  their  side.  The  German  government  can 
no  longer  stifle  these  protests  or  let  loose  the  dogs  of  war 
for  a  mere  yes  or  no.  Its  opposition  to  the  work  of  the 
Hague  arbitration  tribunal,  and  the  voluntary  isolation  to 
which  it  holds  fast  in  token  of  open  resistance  to  progress, 
accepted  even  by  the  Russian  government,  have  singled 
it  out  for  universal  mistrust.  No  government  can  bar 
the  way  with  impunity  to  the  aspirations  of  all  nations, 
including  the  German  nation.  I  remember  how  delighted 
the  German  porter  at  my  hotel  at  The  Hague  was  whenever 
the  representatives  of  his  country  were  defeated  at  the 
Congress.  He  positively  beamed,  rubbed  his  hands,  and 
exclaimed  :  "We'll  see  !"  It  made  me  feel  quite  awkward. 
At  Essen,  in  the  heart  of  the  big  gun  and  armor-plate 
district,  the  Krupp  works  are  at  the  mercy  of  the  30,000 
workmen  and  are  quite  unprotected  by  troops.  The  reason 
is,  according  to  .the  directors,  that  if  they  were  rash  enough 
to  ask  for  soldiers,  the  latter  would  be  either  socialized 
or  stoned  inside  of  a  week. 


220  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

German  Imperialism :  A  Threat  and  a  Disappointment 

None  the  less,  the  German  government  still  thinks  it 
self  compelled  to  pose  as  a  conqueror,  without  realizing 
that  this  attitude  is  generally  objectionable.  It  is  both  a 
threat  and  a  disappointment.  The  more  Germanophile 
Americans  were,  the  more  hostile  they  are  becoming  to 
German  militarism.  To  militarize  a  great  country,  and 
especially  one  that  has  produced  such  men  as  Kant,  Goethe 
and  Beethoven,  is  bad  enough,  and  is  a  crime  that  civiliza 
tion  can  hardly  endure;  but  to  militarize  the  world  is 
too  much.  Just  as  independent  minds  revolted  against 
French  imperialism  under  the  First  and  Second  Empires, 
and  against  English  imperialism,  during  the  Transvaal 
war,  so  they  are  uneasy  over  German  imperialism. 

This  uneasiness  has  brought  about  a  formidable  com 
bination  of  the  latent  and  scattered  forces  of  opinion. 
Impatience  is  beginning  to  manifest  itself,  and  also  a  very 
dangerous  kind  of  general  excitement.  Rather  than  live 
under  a  sword  of  Damocles  held  suspended  by  the  will 
of  a  single  man,  a  great  many  respectable  people  are  saying : 
"Let  us  have  it  over ! "  Let  me  take  France  as  an  example. 
She  has  become  peaceful  as  well  as  Republican.  She  has 
no  feeling  of  hatred  for  the  Germans,  and  would  ask  for 
nothing  better  than  to  come  to  an  understanding  with 
them,  by  means  of  mutual  concessions,  if  they  knew  how 
to  set  about  it  and  gain  her  friendship  by  making  them 
selves  liked  instead  of  feared ;  but  no ;  the  Germans  growl 
at  every  opportunity,  like  big  guns  about  which  one  cannot 
make  sure  whether  they  are  merely  practicing  or  firing  in 
earnest.  They  reproach  us  with  the  complaints  from 
Alsace,  and  they  give  us  to  understand  that,  next  time, 
they  will  take  Burgundy  and  Cherbourg  together  with 
Rotterdam,  Antwerp  and  the  rest.  The  result  is  that 
there  is  not  a  single  Frenchman  of  my  acquaintance  who 


MILWAUKEE   AND    ITS   SURROUNDINGS  221 

is  not  ready  to  give  his  last  cent  and  his  last  son  to  repel 
a  German  invasion.  These  are  not  mere  words.  When 
we  see  Frenchmen,  one  after  the  other,  readily  giving 
their  lives  for  the  mere  joy  of  contributing  to  human  prog 
ress,  we  can  form  some  idea  of  the  heroism  the  same  men 
would  display  to  save  France  and  liberty  at  the  same  time. 
It  is  exactly  the  same  in  the  United  States,  and  also  among 
the  youth  of  the  Slavonic  race. 

The  Germans  are  on  the  wrong  tack.  They  are  alienating 
everybody,  not  through  an ti- Germanism,  but  through  mis 
trust  of  their  system,  and  to  avoid  sudden  conflict  with  them, 
just  as  one  would  avoid  a  lout  who  tried  tp  make  people 
dance  whether  they  wanted  to  do  so  or  not.  Nothing  could 
be  more  logical.  In  1870,  a  great  many  Americans  were 
glad  of  what  was  called  the  victory  of  the  German  school 
master.  To-day  the  schoolmaster  himself  is  in  danger.  He 
is  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  every  one  will  defend  him. 

To  this  the  pessimists  retort  that  all  the  platonic  protests 
in  the  world  will  not  keep  Germany's  strength  from  proving 
victorious.  This  is  more  than  doubtful.  I  once  told 
the  elite  of  Germany  not  to  shout  "To  Paris!"  as  we 
shouted  "To  Berlin !"  That  kind  of  thing  does  not  bring 
good  luck.  If  the  worst  comes  to  the  worst,  the  Germans 
would  have  great  difficulty  in  making  themselves  the  master. 
It  will  take  a  great  deal  of  time,  money  and  blood ;  and  war 
will  probably  be  followed  by  revolution.  What  interest  can 
the  German  imperial  dynasty  have  in  letting  that  revolu 
tion  loose  and  paving  the  way  for  a  confederation  which 
would  be  not  merely  Germanic  but  general?  Surely  it 
would  be  better  to  dispense  with  a  war  and  a  revolution, 
and  reap  the  honors  and  profits  of  the  inevitable  denoue 
ment  to  which,  in  this  age  of  association,  we  are  marching 
onward. 

To  sum  up :  the  whole  of  modern  democracy,  including 
that  of  Germany,  is  against  German  militarism.  There 


222  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

is  no  more  doubt  about  it.1  The  United  States,  who  were 
glad  of  German  colonization  and  rightly  ask  for  it  still, 
do  not  wish  to  have  it  degenerate  into  domination,  and 
it  is  for  this  reason  that  they  are  reverting  to  the  French 
language,  ideas  and  spirit  —  that  is  to  say,  the  human 
spirit.  It  is  a  natural  movement,  carrying  with  it  the 
Germans  themselves,  beginning  with  the  emperor  who 
speaks  better  French  than  millions  of  Frenchmen.  The 
French  spirit  does  not  imply  numbers  or  mass  or  force ;  it  is 
the  ferment  sought  for  by  present-day  civilization,  and  no 
form  of  violence  can  get  the  better  of  it.  If  the  Germans 
desire  to  resume  the  place  they  once  occupied  in  the  confi 
dence  of  the  " intellectuals"  whose  sentiments  were  so  won 
derfully  expressed  by  Renan,  all  they  have  to  do  is  to  become 
themselves  again,  and  raise  themselves  above  the  vulgar  herd 
by  their  intellect,  knowledge  and  genius.  All  this  certainly 
cannot  be  done  in  a  day,  but  they  should  not  forget  that 
time,  on  which  they  rely,  is  working  against  them.  It  in 
creases  their  population,  but  it  will  diminish  their  influence 
and  complicate  their  policy  until  it  becomes  a  chaos,  to  the 
detriment  of  themselves  and  of  the  world  at  large. 

1  The  war  has  not  in  the  least  altered  my  opinion  on  this  point.  The 
scandalous  doings  at  Zabern  —  to  mention  only  one  instance  —  had  already 
caused  a  conflict  between  insolent  German  militarism  and  nearly  the  whole 
body  of  German  opinion.  But  the  pan-Germans,  warned  by  this  notoriously 
evident  defeat,  adopted  more  successful  tactics.  They  took  care  not  to 
consult  public  opinion ;  they  led  it  away  on  a  false  scent  and  hoodwinked 
it  by  a  long  series  of  maneuvers  so  that,  when  once  it  had  embarked  on 
its  course,  it  could  not  draw  back.  They  confronted  it  with  a  fait  accom 
pli,  and  compelled  it  to  declare  itself,  not  for  or  against  them  but  for  or 
against  the  Fatherland.  This  is  only  too  clear ;  but  the  complete  aberra 
tion  of  German  opinion  after  the  Austrian  ultimatum  to  Serbia  does  not 
affect  what  it  was  before  that  event.  We  know  what  it  was,  not  only  by 
our  own  observations  but  by  those  of  the  French  Ambassador  in  Berlin, 
who  has  given  official  evidence  that  war  was  desired  in  Germany  by  a 
minority,  while  the  great  majority,  the  mass  of  the  people,  did  not  want  it. 
This  testimony  is  so  clear  that  I  feel  bound  to  cite  the  substance  of  it  at 
the  end  of  this  chapter  by  extracts  from  the  last  French  Yellow  Book. 
(March,  1915-) 


MILWAUKEE    AND    ITS    SURROUNDINGS  223 

2.    The  Catastrophe  1 

These  warnings  and  a  great  many  others,  repeated  with 
the  energy  of  despair,  have  been  in  vain.  The  war  which 
everybody  was  unanimous  in  dreading,  and  which  might 
have  been  averted,  has  broken  out.  The  very  progress 
made  by  the  principles  of  association,  conciliation,  justice 
and  peace  induced  the  partisans  of  war  to  hasten  the 
denouement.  They  now  have  the  war  they  wanted. 
Europe  is  covered  with  ruins  and  watered  with  blood  from 
east  to  west.  The  war  has  destroyed  treasures  intrusted 
to  the  guardianship  of  civilization,  as  well  as  private  prop 
erty  and  the  most  valuable  and  harmless  lives.  It  has 
transformed  the  seas  into  cemeteries  and  strewn  them  with 
death  traps  as  far  away  as  the  Pacific.  It  has  even  made 
the  sky  a  battlefield.  It  has  paralyzed  the  world's  activity, 
and,  what  is  still  worse,  it  has  killed  belief  in  treaties,  and 
it  has  thrown  the  nations  back  into  barbarism.  Those 
who  were  guilty  of  this  indescribable  crime  are  now  liable 
to  be  called  to  account  by  their  victim,  humanity.  Who 
are  these  criminals? 

Diplomatic  documents  answer  this  question  so  far  as 
Germany  is  concerned.  We  know  from  the  French  Yellow 
Book,  already  mentioned,  that  the  great  mass  of  the  Ger 
man  people  was  for  peace;  but  the  French  Ambassador 
does  not  confine  himself  to  this  statement.  In  his  note  of 
July  30,  preceding  his  dispatch  of  Nov.  22,  1913,  he  speci 
fied  the  component  parts  of  this  mass.  To  begin  with, 
there  were  the  Emperor  and  his  government,  who,  in  many 
other  passages  of  the  first  chapter  of  the  Yellow  Book 
are  shown  as  facing  the  furious  attacks  of  the  pan- Germans 
and  signing  an  agreement  with  France  on  Nov.  4,  1911, 
concerning  Morocco  and  the  Congo.  Here  we  have 

1  The  remainder  of  this  chapter  was  written  after  the  outbreak  of  war. 
(March,  1915.) 


224  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

nothing  less  than  a  phenomenal  event  to  be  noted.  This 
treaty,  which  represented  a  great  effort  on  both  sides 
towards  better  relations,  was  represented  by  the  jingo 
newspapers  on  both  sides  —  and  these  papers  are  by  far 
the  richest  and  most  influential —  as  a  deep  national  humili 
ation  for  both  France  and  Germany. 

All  the  dispatches  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Yellow  Book 
are  of  historical  value.  Never  has  it  been  better  demon 
strated  officially  how  the  advocates  of  competition  in 
armaments  have  succeeded  in  deceiving  public  opinion 
on  both  sides  of  the  frontier,  and  how  an  unmistakably 
pacific  achievement  has  been  misrepresented  on  both  sides 
as  something  shameful  and  dangerous.  I  do  not  think 
there  has  ever  been  a  more  scandalous  instance  of  com 
plete  and  deliberate  perversion  of  the  truth.  The  Franco- 
German  agreement  on  Nov.  4,  1911,  has  been  systemati 
cally  used  as  a  starting  point  for  an  inevitable  war ;  and 
henceforth,  as  M.  Jules  Cambon  wrote  on  Nov.  22,  1913, 
in  sending  his  government  a  clear  warning  from  the  King 
of  the  Belgians,  the  Emperor  William  changed  completely 
and  "  ceased  to  be  a  partisan  of  peace." 

As  the  Emperor  and  his  government  thus  underwent 
a  complete  change,  we  can  understand  why  the  peaceful 
and  disciplined  mass  of  the  nation,  already  poisoned  by 
the  doctrines  of  Trietschke  and  Bernhardi,  which  were 
included  in  the  educational  system,  followed  the  process  of 
evolution  as  one  man.  In  any  case,  we  can  say  that  the 
peace-loving  mass  of  the  German  people  had  hitherto  been 
made  up  as  follows  : 

(1)  The  great  bulk  of  the  workmen,  artisans  and  peasants. 

(2)  That  part  of  the  nobility  which  had  no  direct  con 
cern  with  the  army  and  was  engaged  in  industrial  enter 
prises,  this  section  being  sufficiently  enlightened  to  realize 
the  disastrous  consequences  of  a  great  war,  even  if  their 
country  were  victorious. 


MILWAUKEE    AND    ITS    SURROUNDINGS  225 

(3)  A  large  number  of  manufacturers,  business  men  and 
financiers  of  average  standing. 

(4)  The  Poles,  Alsatians,  Lorrainers  and  inhabitants  of 
Schleswig-Holstein :    peoples   conquered    but    not    assim 
ilated. 

(5)  The  governments  and  governing  classes  of  the  great 
southern  states. 

These  five  classes  of  peace-loving  Germans,  headed  by 
the  Emperor  and  his  principal  ministers,  really  formed 
almost  the  whole  of  peaceful  Germany.  Who,  after  this, 
will  still  venture  to  assert  that  there  was  no  power  for 
peace  in  Germany  and  that  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to 
let  the  war  party  have  its  way  ? 

This  war  party  is  described,  like  the  peace  party,  in  the 
dispatch  already  alluded  to.  It  is  shown  to  be  numerically 
the  weaker  but  to  have  become  the  stronger  in  virtue  of 
its  boldness  and  its  organization.  The  dispatch  divided 
it  up  as  follows  : 

(1)  Landed  proprietors  who  wanted  war  as  a  means  of 
averting  socialist  taxes  and  delaying  the  democratizing  of 
Germany. 

(2)  The  upper  middle  class,  also   antidemocratic,  who 
believed  war  would  create  a  diversion  of  the  social  tendency 
of  the  times. 

(3)  The  manufacturers  of    cannon    and    armor   plates, 
big  business  men  who  wanted  wider  markets,  and  bankers 
who  speculated  on   the  anticipated  war  indemnity  and 
regarded  war  as  a  good  stroke  of  business. 

(4)  The   Bismarckites,   officials   of  all  kinds,   and   the 
party  of  retired  officers  and  officials. 

(5)  The  universities  (with  the  exception  of  a  few  distin 
guished  men)  and  the  advocates  of  German  culture  and 
German  superiority. 

(6)  The  rancorous  partisans  of  war,  notably  embittered 
diplomatists  thirsting  for  revenge. 

Q 


226  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

Such  were,  in  short,  the  two  German  forces.  They 
were  far  from  being  equal.  On  the  one  side  were  vast 
numbers  but  without  insight  or  organization ;  on  the  other, 
a  clever  conspiracy  inspired  by  interested  motives. 

Those  disinterested  men  who  did  not  hesitate  to  warn 
the  German  majority  and  to  raise  the  alarm  in  other  coun 
tries  can  now  stand  proudly  before  the  tribunal  of  public 
opinion  against  the  maleficent  beings  who  have  given  the 
world  to  fire  and  sword  simply  to  satisfy  their  pride  and 
their  material  interests. 

The  United  States,  which  live  by  the  light  of  the  old 
world's  experiences,  will  be  able  to  discern  on  which  side 
is  duty  and  on  which  side  is  crime. 


The  Balance  Sheet  of  War 
The  Culmination  of  German  Militarism 

The  United  States  are  already  in  a  position  to  draw  up 
the  balance  sheet  of  the  war,  even  though  the  latter  be 
unfinished,  and  to  see  with  their  own  eyes  the  disasters 
to  which  militarism  leads.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this 
terrible  experience  will  put  them  on  their  guard ;  for  mili 
tarism,  or  imperialism,  otherwise  the  spirit  of  domination, 
is  a  danger  to  all  great  nations,  in  all  times  and  in  all  parts 
of  the  world.  France,  like  many  others,  has  had  to  pay 
dearly  for  the  lesson,  and  even  Great  Britain  herself  is 
not  without  reproach.  The  Germans  have  at  least  ren 
dered  the  world  this  service:  the  excessive  amount  of 
harm  they  have  done  has  accentuated  the  danger.  They 
have  proved  the  case  most  thoroughly.  Even  assuming 
that  they  escape  a  disaster,  they  have  already  lost  all  hope 
of  victory.  They  cannot  derive  the  amount  of  profit 
from  war  that  they  might  have  expected  from  peace,  as 
we  shall  presently  see. 


MILWAUKEE   AND   ITS    SURROUNDINGS  227 

The  German  war  party  has  accomplished  its  purpose. 
What  has  it  done  ?  The  victories  that  elated  it  and  swelled 
it  with  pride  awakened  a  new  need  within  it:  something 
more  than  a  need,  a  patriotic  and  religious  duty,  incumbent 
upon  every  good  German,  not  to  stop  halfway,  to  aim 
ever  and  ever  higher,  and  to  lift  "Germany  above  all" 
for  the  good  of  the  world  in  general.  It  has  stimulated 
and  exalted  public  opinion  for  the  purpose  of  leading  it 
astray  when  the  time  came,  and  the  government  with  it. 
It  has  long  prepared  public  opinion  for  the  cost  of  keeping 
up  an  army  and  navy  commensurate  with  its  ambition. 
It  made  this  ambition  take  the  preponderant  place  as  a 
supreme  law  overriding  all  other  human  laws,  even  those 
of  honor  and  of  the  simplest  honesty.  "No  laws  and  no 
limitations;  the  greatest  and  vilest  crimes,  if  committed 
in  the  service  of  Germany,  become  virtues."  Such  is  a 
summary  of  the  war  party's  doctrine.  On  these  lines  it 
planned  war  like  a  crime,  with  the  determination  to  con 
quer  at  any  cost.  One  shudders  to  think  of  the  general 
decline  that  would  have  followed  its  victory  had  it  been 
successful!  It  has  not;  but  we  must  not  shut  our  eyes 
to  the  fact  that  no  state  will  ever  be  able  to  try  the  experi 
ment  again  with  so  many  chances  in  its  favor.  No  state 
will  ever  have  the  training,  discipline  and  power  of  dissim 
ulation  and  organization  necessary  for  such  a  stroke ! 
And  yet,  with  all  its  chances,  it  will  fail,  and  had  to  fail. 
Its  plot  will  soon  become  revealed  in  its  true  light  as 
gigantic  and,  at  the  same  time,  stupid.  This  will  dis 
courage  those  who  might  like  to  imitate  it.  Even  those 
among  them  who  disregard  the  moral  aspect  of  the  opera 
tion  must  admit  that  it  has  been  not  only  a  bad  action  but 
bad  business,  which  is  not  saying  enough. 

In  less  than  a  year,  the  German  military  party  will  have 
squandered,  for  no  result,  and  without  reckoning  the  mil 
lions  of  human  lives  and  the  thousands  of  millions  of  dollars 


228  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

for  which  it  is  responsible,  the  inheritance  of  several  cen 
turies  of  reserve  force  accumulated  by  German  labor  and 
patriotism.  It  has  bound  the  Emperor,  the  Empire  and 
even  the  intellectuals  to  its  chariot  wheels ;  it  has  become 
the  expression  of  the  Empire's  will;  it  has  staked  Ger 
many's  fortune  on  a  single  card,  and  lost  it.  What  a 
fortune,  and  what  a  future  were  Germany's!  She  had 
become  hardened  by  her  struggle  against  difficulties,  which 
had  tempered  and  trained  her.  She  had  become  a  trium 
phantly  expansive  force.  All  she  had  to  do  was  to  let  her 
population  go  on  multiplying  and  spreading  abroad,  so  as 
to  distance  her  less  enterprising  rivals  and  colonize  with 
out  running  any  risks  or  assuming  any  responsibilities. 
Germany  was  colonizing  other  nations'  colonies  and  even 
her  neighbors'  territories.  So  long  as  she  was  peaceful, 
time  was  on  her  side,  strengthening  the  results  already 
achieved  and  opening  up  countless  new  fields  of  activity 
and  unhoped-for  sources  of  wealth.  This  was  a  really 
respectable  triumph,  because  Germany's  progress  stimu 
lated  her  rivals'  initiative  and  ingenuity  and  would  have 
contributed  eventually  to  universal  progress.  But  this 
peaceful  triumph  would  not  do  for  the  military  party  or 
for  the  German  Empire  !  An  empire  cannot  endure  rivals ; 
it  must  either  be  first  or  nowhere ;  it  must  either  be  above 
everything  or  not  exist  at  all;  and,  rather  than  sacrifice 
its  pride,  the  Empire  has  sacrificed  Germany.  It  was  an 
incalculable  sacrifice,  but  we  can  nevertheless  form  a 
rough  estimate  of  what  it  means. 

Before  1870,  the  struggle  between  the  French  and  Ger 
man  Empires  was  at  least  intelligible ;  but  when  the  French 
Empire  was  vanquished,  Germany's  first  duty  was  to  take 
advantage  of  the  lesson  and  not  to  make  the  mistakes 
which  had  proved  its  adversary's  ruin.  By  atoning  for 
the  wrongs  it  has  committed,  it  could  easily  have  brought 
about  a  reconciliation  with  the  French  Republic.  The 


MILWAUKEE   AND   ITS    SURROUNDINGS  229 

German  military  party,  however,  was  a  still  unsatisfied 
conqueror.  Since  1875  it  has  alarmed  and  disturbed  Eu 
rope  in  all  sorts  of  ways  which  there  is  a  too  great  tendency 
to  forget.  It  has  driven  the  French  Republic  into  the 
arms  of  autocratic  Russia.  Moreover,  its  excessive  de 
mands  and  its  oppressive  policy  in  the  non- German  prov 
inces  of  the  Empire,  and  its  hostility  to  the  general  demand 
for  emancipation,  have  stirred  up  antagonism  and  resist 
ance  and  created  a  general  state  of  distrust  and  dissatis 
faction. 

As  a  consequence,  the  mere  force  of  circumstances  and 
the  mere  contrast  between  its  regime  and  that  of  the  Ger 
man  Empire  have  made  France  a  natural  center  of  attrac 
tion  for  all  nations  whose  anxiety  was  aroused  by  the 
prospect  of  German  supremacy.  Great  Britain  drev 
nearer  to  France,  and  the  Entente  Cordiale  became  the 
complement  of  the  Russian  alliance  and  an  effective  equiva 
lent  of  the  Triple  Alliance.  German  militarism  has  recon 
ciled,  against  itself,  several  hereditary  enemies,  France  and 
Russia,  France  and  England,  England  and  Russia,  Russia 
and  Japan.  Instead  of  viewing  this  association  for  public 
safety  as  a.  warning,  the  German  Government  could  see 
nothing  in  it  but  a  threat  and  a  pretext  for  an  unlimited 
increase  in  its  means  of  action  and  its  armaments.  It 
made  ceaseless  preparations,  not  for  justifiable  resistance 
but,  as  events  have  proved,  for  striking  a  blow  and  waging 
a  war  of  extermination,  while  France,  Russia  and  England 
were  obviously  taken  unawares.  It  has  taken  them  six 
months  to  make  up  for  lost  time.  If  Germany  had  con 
fined  herself  to  defensive  preparations,  she  would  have 
been  impregnable,  as  the  events  of  the  war  have  shown. 
The  rapid  progress  of  the  principles  of  justice  and  inter 
national  conciliation,  which  are  constantly  developing, 
would  have  rendered  any  Franco- German  war  unnecessary 
and  impossible. 


230  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Without  venturing  to  prophesy,  do  we  not  know  enough 
already  to  see  what  will  be  the  end  of  the  German  imperial 
scheme?  We  see  Russia,  bled  in  vain  but  still  impene 
trable,  still  stronger,  richer  and  more  populous,  taking 
her  revenge  for  the  treaty  of  Berlin,  preponderant,  what 
ever  may  happen,  at  Constantinople,  mistress  of  the 
Dardanelles  and  installed  on  the  Mediterranean,  to  the 
exclusion  of  Germany. 

We  see  Italy  separated  from  Germany;  we  see  Greece, 
Serbia,  even  Bulgaria  and  Roumania  compelled  sooner  or 
later  to  side  against  the  Turks,  or,  in  other  words,  against 
Austria  and  against  Germany. 

We  see,  at  the  same  time,  Austria  sentenced,  if  not  extin 
guished,  and  Germany  really  hemmed  in  and  forced  even 
tually  into  a  duel  which  ought  to  have  been  avoided  at  any 
cost  —  a  most  unequal  duel  with  Russia,  a  duel  of  two 
races  and  not  merely  of  two  armies.  We  see  Russia,  whose 
prodigious  resources  are  not  realized  by  Americans,  press 
ing  with  the  whole  weight  of  her  population  and  her  infinite 
wealth  on  Germany.  We  see  all  the  traditional  hatred 
of  the  two  races  revived.  We  see  Russia  utilizing  all  that 
her  young  protegees  in  the  Balkans  have  suffered  from 
Turco- Germanic  oppression  to  propagate  the  Slav  idea 
among  them,  from  the  Adriatic  to  Belgrade  and  from 
Sofia  to  Prague :  the  Slav  idea,  which  means  hatred  of 
Islam  combined  with  that  of  German  domination,  justified 
by  the  horrors  of  the  present  war. 

We  see  Russia,  essentially  a  colonizing  power,  Russia, 
who  colonizes  as  a  drop  of  oil  spreads  through  in  nitrations, 
now  in  possession  of  access  to  the  open  sea  and  using  her 
ingenuity  to  make  the  produce  of  her  agriculture  and  her 
growing  industries  take  the  place  of  German  goods  in  all 
the  world's  markets.  We  see  Germany's  laborious  under 
takings  all  over  the  world,  in  Africa,  Asia  and  the  Pacific, 
brought  into  question.  We  see  England,  the  United 


MILWAUKEE   AND    ITS    SURROUNDINGS  23! 

States,  Scandinavia,  Holland,  Italy,  Japan  and  all  new 
countries  discounting  the  stoppage  of  German  activity 
and  hurrying  to  take  its  place,  at  any  rate  for  a  time,  while 
Germany  staggers  under  the  crushing  burden  of  her  debt 
and  tries  to  cope  with  internal  difficulties  which  she  has 
more  reason  than  any  other  power  to  fear  after  the  war  is 
over. 

These  economic,  social  and  political  difficulties  will  be 
great.  We  will  not  exaggerate  them,  for  there  can  be  no 
compressing  the  vitality  of  a  nation,  and  no  one  can  seri 
ously  suppose  that  Germany,  even  if  crushed,  will  give 
up  all  hope  of  reviving.  Whatever  happens,  she  will  not 
fail  to  find,  among  her  present  customers  even,  support 
which  will  enable  her  to  exist,  to  produce,  sell  and  buy. 
Her  vitality  will  be  a  necessity  from  her  enemies'  point 
of  view,  if  only  to  make  sure  of  the  payment  of  the  war 
indemnities.  Nobody  will  be  simple  enough  to  use  Ger 
many's  own  theory  of  the  necessary  destruction  of  the 
enemy  against  Germany  herself.  There  is,  nevertheless, 
one  chastisement  which  she  cannot  escape,  and  to  which 
I  have  not  yet  referred.  It  is  this : 

Germany  will  remain  solid  with  the  military  party  she 
has  so  blindly  followed.  She  has  not  merely  sacrificed 
the  flower  of  the  youth  of  our  time,  destroyed  the  treasures 
of  civilization,  museums,  libraries,  churches  and  cathedrals, 
and  exceeded  the  horrors  perpetrated  by  the  Duke  of  Alba, 
her  pretext  being  the  necessity  of  terrorizing  the  people 
she  wanted  to  conquer.  She  has  done  still  worse  than  all 
this.  She  has  broken  her  pledges  and  violated  the  most 
sacred  rights.  She  has  killed  confidence.  Her  word  will 
no  longer  be  believed  and  her  signature  will  not  be  accepted. 
No  one  will  negotiate  with  her  without  having  the  most 
substantial  guarantees,  such  as  are  required  from  bankrupts. 

Any  other  nation  fallen  from  so  high  an  estate  would  at 
least  inspire  pity;  but  no  reasonable  man  can  ask  us  to 


232  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

believe  in  Germany  so  long  as  she  has  not  renounced  the 
system  that  has  done  her  so  much  harm.  She  alone  can 
liberate  herself  and  bring  about  her  own  salvation.  So 
long  as  she  voluntarily  submits  to  the  yoke  placed  on  her 
neck  by  the  military  party,  so  long  will  she  be  generally 
detested.  When  she  complains,  every  one  will  say:  "It 
serves  you  right ;  you  have  only  gotten  what  you  deserve." 
Her  only  resource  will  be  to  begin  her  history  all  over  again, 
with  its  struggles  and  perpetual  system  of  terrorizing.  She 
will  watch  for  an  opportunity,  until  dissensions  show 
themselves  again  in  Europe,  for  taking  her  revenge,  which 
will  be  always  possible  but  always  ephemeral.  She  will 
keep  alive  the  dread  of  another  war  which  will  be  still  more 
horrible  than  any  of  its  predecessors.  This  threat  will  be 
her  invariable  resource,  her  policy  and  her  monstrous 
specialty,  and  it  will  render  her  accursed,  able  to  do  nothing 
but  harm  without  being  in  a  position  to  profit  by  it,  power 
less  and  yet  feared  and  all  the  more  hated.  And  yet  how 
easy  it  would  have  been  for  Germany,  with  her  great 
qualities  and  without  her  pride,  to  make  herself  loved ! 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    STATES    OF    ILLINOIS  AND  OHIO 

i.  CHICAGO.  Latest  developments.  The  lake  traffic.  The  drain 
age  canal.  The  town.  The  American  luncheon.  The  Panama 
Canal.  American  Sunday.  The  Orchestra  Hall.  —  2.  ART, 
Music,  LITERATURE,  SCIENCE,  PHILOSOPHY. — 3.  THE  AMERICAN 
BARBER.  —  4.  THE  UNIVERSITIES  or  CHICAGO  AND  ILLINOIS. 
Chicago.  Urbana.  The  religion  of  the  future.  The  Chinese  revo 
lution  boycotted  by  European  diplomacy.  —  5.  WOMEN  AND  THE 
DRINK  QUESTION.  —  6.  CINCINNATI.  The  wealthy  man  who  does 
good.  The  fine  river.  Toledo,  Indiana,  Columbus,  Cleveland, 
Dayton.  Organization  of  peace  and  aviation.  —  7.  END  OF  THE 
FIRST  PART  OF  MY  CAMPAIGN. 


i.   Chicago.     Latest  Developments 

IN  1902  I  gave  some  account  of  the  astonishment  created 
in  my  mind  by  my  first  visit  to  Chicago,1  but  nevertheless 
I  have  still  a  great  deal  to  say  about  this  immense  city, 
where,  this  time,  I  found  myself  in  familiar  surroundings 
and  among  tried  friends,  with  the  result  that  my  informa 
tion  was  much  better  and  more  extensive. 

Chicago  is  only  a  few  hours'  journey  from  Milwaukee, 
which  I  left  in  the  morning.  I  had  scarcely  finished 
reading  the  papers  before  the  train  began  to  slacken  speed 
and  run  through  a  straggling  collection  of  houses,  indicating 
that  the  mighty  city  was  at  hand.  Chicago  has  become 
one  of  the  greatest  railroad  centers  of  the  world.  It  is  a 
terminus  of  thirty-four  lines.  There  is  no  going  through 

1  A  series  of  private  letters  published  in  1902  by  the  French  local  news 
paper,  Le  Journal  Flechois. 

233 


234  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Chicago ;  one  has  to  stop  there.  These  thirty-four  lines  repre 
sent  a  distance  of  92,398  miles,  or  42  per  cent  of  the  total 
railroad  mileage  of  the  United  States.  Every  day  1594 
trains  enter  or  leave  Chicago,  without  counting  the  suburban 
traffic.  The  total  length  of  all  the  railroads  —  including 
subways,  overhead  and  ordinary  lines  —  within  the  city 
is  incredible,  and  then  there  are  the  automobiles,  of  which 
there  seem  to  be  more  here  than  anywhere  else.  Chicago, 
which  was  a  humble  village  of  60  inhabitants  in  1823,  had 
a  population  of  4470  in  1840,  1,698,000  in  1900,  and 
2,185,000  in  1910.  The  city  keeps  up  1077  churches, 
65  public  libraries,  6  colleges  and  universities,  267  public 
schools  and  nearly  70  parks  and  open  spaces,  large  and 
small,  including  14  model  playgrounds  and  3  lakeside 
beaches.  Its  newspapers  and  periodicals  number  725, 
and  its  licensed  saloons  reach  the  modest  total  of  only 
7152 — very  few  in  comparison  with  Paris,  London  and 
Berlin.  Paris,  for  instance,  has  31,560,  or  44,257,  if  we 
include  the  suburbs. 

Travelers  always  visit  the  celebrated  works  of  the 
International  Harvester  Company,  a  "combine"  of  two 
rival  firms,  McCormick  and  Deering,  whose  agricultural 
machinery  is  to  be  found  on  farms  all  over  the  world. 
One  cannot,  moreover,  ignore  the  organ  and  piano  fac 
tories  or  those  of  the  Pullman  cars  which  I  am  using  to 
an  excessive  extent. 

The  increase  of  transport  facilities  of  all  kinds,  and 
especially  the  cold-storage  cars  used  all  over  the  United 
States,  has  largely  contributed  to  the  prodigious  develop 
ment  of  the  salted  and  canned  meat  industries  at  Chicago. 
The  capital  invested  in  them  has  increased  from  $8,400,000 
in  1880  to  over  $70,000,000.  Some  idea  of  this  may  be 
obtained  by  visiting  the  horrible  stockyards,  to  which 
the  railroads  brought  14,050,000  head  of  cattle  in  1909, 
to  fall  under  the  slaughter-man's  knife  or  club.  (But  all 


THE   STATES   OF  ILLINOIS  AND   OHIO  235 

this  is  well  known.)  The  importance  of  the  grain  and 
flour  trades  is  also  very  evident.  Lumber  is  no  longer 
brought  to  Chicago  to  be  floated  downstream  to  the  in 
terior  ;  the  supply  is  dwindling  away.  On  the  other  hand, 
an  industry  of  which  a  great  deal  will  be  heard  has  been 
founded.  The  Steel  Corporation  did  not  hesitate  to  con 
struct  the  largest  blastfurnaces  in  the  world  near  Chicago 
at  a  cost  of  $65,000,000.  This  is  the  latest  development 
of  modern  progress.  It  keeps  pace  with  that  of  the  lake 
traffic  which  I  am  never  tired  of  admiring,  but  which  never 
theless  has  not  yet  reached  perfection.  Chicago's  steel, 
like  its  machinery,  canned  foods  and  Pullman  cars,  could 
be  conveyed  direct,  in  case  of  need,  to  any  part  of  the 
world  without  transhipment.  The  steamers  are  loaded  at 
the  wharf  side  in  the  river  or  canal  of  Chicago  at  the 
foot  of  the  docks,  descend  through  the  Lakes  and  then 
reach  the  ocean  through  the  St.  Lawrence  River.  The 
trip  is  long  but  satisfactory;  but  it  has  been  given  up 
in  favor  of  the  new  order,  for  various  reasons.  The 
boats,  having  arrived  at  their  destination  in  the  Black 
Sea,  for  example,  find  no  freight  to  take  back ;  they  easily 
find  it  for  New  York  but  not  for  the  Lakes.  Furthermore 
the  insurance  companies  favor  New  York,  so  that  their 
tariffs  for  lake  navigation  are  prohibitive.  The  force  of 
affairs  is,  however,  such  that  the  number  and  tonnage  of 
boats  at  Chicago  does  not  stop  increasing;  in  1909  there 
were  12,385  arrivals  and  sailings,  representing  15,521,257 
tons.  Great  maritime  ports  may  envy  these  figures. 
That  of  Liverpool  does  not  exceed  12,000,000,  that  of 
Havre  does  not  reach  7,000,000.  There  are  no  less  than 
1 7  navigation  companies  on  the  Great  Lakes,  representing 
all  together  a  tonnage  of  7,290,745. 

One  of  the  most  extraordinary  and  fortunate  enterprises 
for  Chicago  is  the  opening  of  an  artificial  canal,  the 
drainage  canal,  which  reverses  the  order  of  nature,  or 


236  AMERICA   AND   HER    PROBLEMS 

reestablishes  it,  according  as  one  goes  back  in  the  history 
of  the  American  continent.  It  is  known  to-day  that  the 
waters  of  the  Great  Lakes  flow  toward  the  Atlantic  through 
the  Niagara  River.  Chicago  has  therefore  been  obliged 
to  follow  the  gentle  slope  of  the  ground  so  as  to  drain  all 
its  waste  water,  and  particularly  the  sewerage,  into  the 
lake ;  but  as  the  lake  constituted  the  city  water  supply  - 
a  first-rate  water  corresponding  very  nearly  to  that  of 
the  Lake  of  Geneva  and  pumped  up  from  a  depth  of  seven 
or  eight  hundred  feet  for  city  use  —  the  people  of  Chicago 
soon  discovered  that  they  were  poisoning  their  own  water 
supply,  especially  when  the  waste  water  was  driven  towards 
the  center  of  the  lake  by  a  westerly  wind.  What  was  to 
be  done?  In  so  level  a  country,  the  slightest  declivity 
of  the  ground  would  be  of  value,  and  the  civil  engineers 
and  geologists  hit  upon  the  idea  of  utilizing  a  river  bed 
dating  from  the  ice  age.  This  river  bed  sloped  away 
from  the  lake  instead  of  towards  it,  and  communicated 
with  a  tributary  of  the  Mississippi.  A  channel  was  dug 
with  a  slope  that  would  easily  carry  off  the  contents  of 
the  sewers  when  the  latter  had  been  diverted  from  the 
lake.  The  sewerage  is  largely  diluted  with  running  water, 
purified  by  the  open  air  and  finally  discharged  into  the 
Illinois.  Joliet,  one  of  the  first  riverside  cities  to  " benefit" 
by  this  unexpected  tributary,  is  thus  provided  with  two 
doubtful  privileges :  it  gets  all  Chicago's  dirty  water  and 
is  the  location  of  the  state  prison.  Joliet  no  doubt  filters 
its  water  after  the  latest  and  most  approved  systems.  In 
any  event,  Chicago  has  made  our  pioneers'  paradoxical 
idea  come  true :  the  Great  Lakes  now  have  two  outlets 
in  different  directions,  one  towards  the  Atlantic  and  the 
other  towards  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

Americans  are  justly  proud  of  these  great  undertakings, 
which  I  discussed  with  sundry  pleasant  fellow  travelers 
pending  our  arrival  in  Chicago.  I  have  already  remarked 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS  AND   OHIO  237 

that,  like  mere  European  trains,  those  in  America  are 
liable  to  be  late.  I  was  again  met  at  the  depot  by  my 
faithful  friend,  Cyrus  McCormick,  whose  guest  I  was  in 
1902.  We  were  delighted  to  see  each  other  again,  and  we 
were  inquiring  warmly  about  our  families  and  friends 
when  we  were  surrounded  by  a  ring  of  reporters  and  pho 
tographers.  I  could  neither  see  nor  hear  them,  on  account 
of  the  fog  and  noise.  I  had  to  open  my  eyes  to  their 
widest  and  strain  my  voice  severely  so  as  to  supply  them 
all  with  their  "copy"  and  pictures,  or  even  caricatures. 
Finally,  we  drove  off  to  the  Blackstone  Hotel,  to  which 
my  friends  had  come  on  purpose  to  have  me  with  them, 
their  own  house  being  closed. 

The  Town 

Chicago  has  not  greatly  changed.  I  am  more  and 
more  possessed  with  admiration  for  this  mighty  city  which, 
after  being  flooded  in  1855,  raised  the  level  of  its  soil  eight 
feet,  and  after  being  reduced  to  ashes  in  1871,  was  entirely 
rebuilt.  The  light,  however,  is  very  unfavorable.  It  is 
noon,  but  the  lake  is  invisible,  just  as  it  was  at  Milwaukee, 
though  it  makes  its  presence  felt,  especially  by  the  answer 
ing  howls  from  the  whistles  of  the  steamers,  which  we 
could  easily  imagine  to  be  on  the  point  of  running  into  us. 
We  make  our  way  between  two  impetuous  streams  of 
traffic,  —  automobiles,  wagons  and  motorcycles,  —  rushing 
and  flowing  and  hooting  and  howling  amidst  the  motor 
buses  and  tramways  and  under  the  elevated  railroad. 
The  combined  effect  is  too  much  for  me.  Some  of  the 
crossings  suggest  visions  of  hell,  the  impression  being 
strengthened  by  the  flashes  and  strident  squeaks  from  the 
trolley  cars.  And  yet  there  are  human  beings  who,  in 
stead  of  being  mere  visitors  like  myself,  live  here !  This 
is  one  of  the  finest  parts  of  the  city,  where  all  the  best 


238  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

and  largest  stores  are.  In  all  these  ground-floor  premises, 
twice  or  even  ten  times  buried  like  cellars  under  the  bulk 
of  twenty  stories  or  more,  and  under  the  elevated  railroad 
viaducts  that  occupy  the  middle  of  the  roadway,  business 
men  and  workers  of  both  sexes  live,  customers  come  to 
make  their  purchases,  cashiers  calculate,  stenographers 
and  typewriters  transcribe  hurriedly  dictated  letters  and 
men  and  women  think,  plan  and  remember.  I  pity  them. 
How  can  any  human  beings  endure  the  sudden  shocks  of 
sound  and  the  aggressive  noisiness  of  all  these  vehicles 
fretting  and  fuming  and  flashing,  stopping  and  starting 
again  and  coming  and  going  in  every  direction  and  without 
a  moment's  interval,  while,  only  a  hundred  yards  away, 
the  railroad  runs  in  a  cutting  along  the  Michigan  Boule 
vard  and  the  trains  fill  the  air  with  smoke  and  steam  and 
the  clanging  of  bells,  even  more  maddening  than  the  steam 
boat  sirens?  And  how  can  I  describe  the  scene  when 
the  swing  bridges  are  opened  to  let  the  steamers  through 
and  the  double  tide  of  street  traffic  is  stopped  for  a  few 
minutes,  after  which  it  flows  again  with  renewed  intensity  ? 
What  one  sees  here  is  a  constant  distribution  of  produce 
to  all  parts  of  the  world.  I  wonder  how  business  men  and 
their  employees  can  endure  conditions  so  hostile  to  intel 
lectual  work,  reflection  and  imagination  —  all  incalculably 
valuable  producing  factors.  The  more  perfect  a  machine 
is,  and  the  human  machine  is  like  all  others  in  this  respect, 
the  more  quietly  it  works.  Much  noise,  little  work  has 
long  been  an  accepted  axiom  with  us.  The  Americans 
have  proved  its  falsity,  but  they  do  not  yet  know  the  value 
of  silence. 

My  room  at  the  hotel  was  quite  a  haven  of  rest  from  all 
the  noise,  but  nevertheless  I  had  to  leave  it  very  soon  to 
attend  a  big  luncheon  that  was  waiting  for  me,  and  what  a 
luncheon ! 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS  AND   OHIO  239 

The  American  Luncheon 

The  American  luncheon,  which  is  both  quiet  and  sumptu 
ous,  is  a  national  institution.  Most  of  the  great  modern 
enterprises  in  the  United  States  are  decided  upon  or  pre 
pared  for  at  one  of  these  luncheons,  or  at  a  dinner  of  the 
same  kind.  Twenty  or  thirty  of  the  leading  citizens  come 
together  to  meet  the  newcomer,  question  him  and  pass 
judgment  on  him.  Every  one  eats  and  drinks  without 
paying  much  attention  to  the  menu,  magnificent  though 
it  often  is,  or  to  the  luxurious  and  refined  character  of  the 
table-setting,  flowers  and  attendance,  all  this  being  taken 
as  in  the  ordinary  course.  The  occasion  is  an  important 
one,  and,  as  every  one  knows,  will  lead  to  various  decisions 
and  acts  affecting  the  future  of  the  commerce  and  industry 
of  the  city  and  nation.  It  is  an  occasion  that  is  worth 
preparing  for.  It  is  like  one  of  the  banquets  of  the  ancients, 
in  the  most  beautiful  surroundings  obtainable,  held  with 
a  view  to  American  action.  After  luncheon,  people  take 
their  coffee,  smoke  at  the  table  and  talk  to  their  neighbors. 
In  this  way  the  ice  is  broken.  Then  come  the  speeches, 
and  whoever  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  oc 
casion,  or  is  not  destined  to  agree  with  the  rest,  shows 
his  own  incompatibility,  consciously  or  unconsciously. 
He  drops  out,  of  his  own  accord,  without  being  asked  to 
go.  The  password  is  given ;  the  city  and  nation  are  made 
acquainted  with  the  views  of  the  guests,  and  if  these  views 
are  favorable,  the  most  exclusive  houses  are  thrown  open 
to  the  visitor,  whereby  his  task  is  materially  lightened. 

Such  was  my  impression  of  the  luncheon  given  me  by 
the  Union  League  Club  in  1902  and  also  of  the  present 
one,  with  this  difference  that,  instead  of  coming  for  the 
first  time,  I  returned.  Some  of  my  most  distinguished 
friends  were  waiting  for  me.  Some  had  traveled  a  very 
long  way  to  meet  me,  notably  William  Jennings  Bryan, 


240  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

whom  I  had  missed  in  Texas  and  at  Lincoln,  and  who  had 
been  good  enough  to  write  me,  nearly  two  months  before, 
that  he  intended  to  come  to  Chicago  on  purpose  to  see  me. 
Cyrus  McCormick,  our  host,  was  the  first  speaker.  He 
spoke  feelingly  of  my  first  visit,  and  then  Mr.  Bryan  de 
livered  one  of  his  wittiest  and  most  eloquent  speeches.  My 
reply  was  quite  a  hymn  of  gratitude.  Skeptics  may  make 
fun  of  the  use  of  such  a  phrase,  but  I  wanted  to  say  some 
thing  that  was  only  too  true.  Every  business  man  in 
Europe,  in  1902,  laughed  at  the  idea  of  international  justice 
and  arbitration,  and  politicians  and  the  Press,  of  course, 
did  likewise.  Chicago  was  the  first  place  in  which  I  found 
a  nucleus  of  broad-minded  and  positive  men  who  realized 
that  it  is  the  mission  of  the  two  republics,  France  and  the 
United  States,  to  enlighten  the  world  and  lead  it  in  the 
new  path.  It  was  soon  after  this  visit  that  President 
Roosevelt  —  the  first  to  forestall  the  expressions  of  con 
fidence  to  which  it  gave  rise  —  instituted  himself  a  cham 
pion  of  the  Hague  institution,  and  his  example  was  followed 
by  many  other  Americans. 

The  manifestations  of  clear-sightedness  and  innovating 
independence  of  the  American  people  are  traditional  in 
Chicago.  It  was  there  that  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps  found 
support  to  undertake  his  canal  at  Panama.  The  memory 
of  the  two  lectures  which  he  gave  before  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce  and  the  engineers  of  the  whole  country  at 
Chicago  remains  vivid.  Although  his  lectures,  delivered 
in  French,  had  to  be  translated  as  he  spoke,  they  were 
nevertheless  received  enthusiastically,  and  this  enthusiasm 
contributed  toward  determining  the  general  sympathies 
of  American  opinion.  Malevolence  and  envy  have  ex 
ploited  our  weakness,  here  as  elsewhere.  In  the  enter 
prise  of  De  Lesseps,  as  in  the  magnificent  French  foundation 
of  Louisiana  and  Canada,  some  have  sought  to  see  gross 
failings,  the  results  of  French  instability.  Such  base  mis- 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS  AND   OHIO  241 

representation,  however,  does  not  prevent  truth  and 
justice  from  prevailing  ultimately,  and  it  was  at  Chicago 
again  that  I  heard  De  Lesseps's  reputation  restored  to  its 
proper  level  in  these  words:  "It  does  not  matter  whether 
the  Panama  Canal  is  given  De  Lesseps's  name  or  not; 
neither  need  we  inquire  who  will  reap  the  greatest  amount 
of  profit  from  it ;  the  fact  remains  that  France  conceived 
the  idea  and  compelled  the  world  to  carry  it  out." 

In  the  evening,  a  great  banquet  was  held  in  the  Gold 
Room  of  the  Congress  Hotel.  It  was  another  of  those  cor 
dial  and  splendid  gatherings  at  which  the  speeches  and  con 
versation  stimulate  one's  enthusiasm  and  revive  the  flow 
of  activities. 

American  Sunday 

The  following  day  being  Sunday,  a  day  of  rest  even  in 
Chicago,  I  took  the  opportunity  of  bringing  my  corre 
spondence  and  notes  up  to  date.  The  latter  were  merely 
hasty  jottings  instead  of  the  rapid  drawings,  or  water- 
colors  I  was  so  fond  of  making  when  I  was  young,  but 
which  I  am  afraid  will  never  be  accomplished  now,  except 
in  my  dreams.  I  had  no  time.  Fortunately  for  me,  the 
friends  who  acted  as  guardian  angels  throughout  my 
wanderings  saved  me  all  trouble  and  anxiety  about  all 
the  arrangements  for  my  journey.  My  railway  tickets 
were  taken  and  quarters  found  for  me,  and  no  inroads  were 
made  upon  the  little  time  I  had  to  myself.  Otherwise, 
in  spite  of  the  devoted  labor  of  the  secretary  who  has 
accompanied  me  for  years  on  my  journeys  from  Paris,  I 
should  never  be  able  to  send  the  necessary  letters  of  thanks 
to  people  I  have  seen,  announce  my  arrival  to  those  I  am 
to  see  and  make  proper  arrangements  for  the  details  of 
my  various  visits,  which  are  quite  as  interdependent  as 
the  links  of  a  chain.  Neither  can  I  shut  my  door  al 
together  to  newspaper  men  or  to  bona  fide  visitors  who 


242  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

come  in  search  of  the  truth  and  may  prove  useful  in  spread 
ing  it. 

Thus  passes  the  morning,  too  quickly  to  my  mind,  in 
comparative  solitude,  and  so  also  passes  the  day.  I  go 
out  alone,  on  foot.  A  calm  has  come  over  the  city,  and 
the  sky  has  cleared.  I  walk  beside  the  lake,  cross  bridges 
and  canals  and  reach  the  park;  in  short,  I  wander  idly 
about,  enjoying  the  return  of  peace  and  light.  I  walk 
along  streets,  some  narrow  and  some  wide,  void  of  the 
midday  throng.  I  see  the  names  of  La  Salle  and  other 
French  pioneers  respectfully  and  lovingly  commemorated. 
Yesterday  —  I  had  nearly  forgotten  this  touching  incident 
—  a  bridge  was  opened  in  front  of  me  to  let  a  steamer 
through.  It  was  the  Pere  Marquette,  and  I  gazed  on  it, 
full  of  veneration  for  the  memory  of  the  man  whose  name 
our  ingratitude  in  France  has  forgotten.  I  went  to  call 
on  Mrs.  Potter  Palmer  (who  proved  to  be  away)  to  revive 
my  recollection  of  the  reception  she  gave  me  ten  years 
ago  at  her  house  —  a  museum,  or  rather  a  temple  she  has 
dedicated  to  the  glory  of  Millet,  Corot  and  the  whole 
French  school,  especially  Claude  Monet. 

The  Orchestra  Hall 

I  came  back  tired  but  with  my  mental  tension  relaxed, 
ready  for  the  ceremony  or  service  or  festival  —  the  name 
is  of  little  consequence  —  at  which  I  was  to  speak  in  the 
evening.  I  need  not  say  that  the  people  of  Chicago  have 
a  concert  and  lecture  hall  worthy  of  them,  —  the  Orchestral 
Hall,  an  immense  building  with  comfortable  seating  ac 
commodation  for  an  audience  of  three  or  four  thousand. 
I  spent  some  time  listening  to  the  organ  and  the  voices 
of  the  choir  and  of  the  entire  audience,  blended  in  a  chant 
that  was  both  secular  and  religious.  It  was  an  appeal  for 
inspiration  and  for  universal  harmony;  it  rose  above  the 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS   AND   OHIO  243 

cares  of  the  world  and  suggested  preparation  for  an  in 
sight  into  higher  things.  I  was  still  in  rapt  attention 
when  my  turn  came  to  speak.  My  address  was  largely 
inspired  by  the  attitude  of  my  hearers  themselves.  I 
was  conscious  of  mutual  confidence,  and  felt  that  in  con 
veying  my  own  thoughts  I  was  expressing  theirs.  It 
seemed  to  me,  not  for  the  first  time,  that  my  audience  felt 
exactly  the  same  as  all  the  other  audiences  I  have  addressed, 
and  from  whom  I  have  derived  instruction,  in  my  own 
country  and  in  all  other  countries. 

There  is  a  belief  that  men  are  unlike  one  another  because 
they  happen  to  live  in  different  countries,  or  on  opposite 
banks  of  the  same  river  or  sea  or  ocean.  It  is  a  great 
mistake. 

All  the  audiences  I  have  addressed  for  the  past  twenty 
years  might  be  regarded  as  parts  of  one  great  whole  —  an 
audience  of  human  beings  who  rejoice  over  the  same  hopes, 
abhor  the  same  evils,  cherish  the  same  ideals  and  welcome 
the  same  signs  of  progress. 

I  have  looked  at  them  all  with  an  unprejudiced  eye  — 
men,  women  and  children  seemingly  so  different,  from  the 
north,  south,  east  and  west ;  in  France,  England  and  Ger 
many,  Russia,  Hungary  and  the  East,  Scandinavia,  Texas, 
California  and  Chicago  —  and  I  can  say  this  to  their  gov 
ernments:  "You  don't  know  how  near  they  are  to  an 
understanding  or  how  greatly  they  want  it.  They  will 
have  it  some  day  without  your  assistance  if  you  fail  to 
understand  them,  and  they  will  have  it  in  spite  of  you  or 
against  your  opposition." 

I  expressed  all  this,  and  my  hearers  and  I,  for  a  moment, 
felt  that  we  were  at  one  in  a  sentiment  of  human  brother 
hood. 

It  was  a  memorable  and  a  happy  evening.  What  a 
fortunate  community,  to  be  still  young  enough  to  want 
such  refreshing  gatherings,  where  all  can  close  up  their 


244  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

ranks  against  the  chances  and  changes  of  life,  just  as  sheep 
on  mountain  pastures  cling  together  to  meet  the  storm ! 

As  to  these  weekly  meetings,  which  are  organized 
by  the  Chicago  Sunday  Evening  Club,  their  object 
is  to  uphold  what  is  called  in  America  the  Christian 
spirit,  which  is  entirely  different  from  the  clerical  spirit, 
and  the  spirit  of  comradeship  among  the  business  men, 
workmen,  clerks  and  the  rest  of  Chicago's  working  popu 
lation  which  springs  from  so  many  different  foreign  origins, 
and  in  which  any  man  without  companionship  is  lost. 
These  meetings  supply  a  need  that  always  has  been  and 
always  will  be  felt ;  they  are  one  of  the  conditions  of  civili 
zation  ;  they  take  the  place,  in  many  cases,  of  instruction, 
or  add  to  it.  In  such  surroundings  I  should  have  liked  to 
listen  to  a  classical  concert.  The  enthusiasm  shown  by 
the  American  audience  would  have  enabled  me  to  estimate 
the  progress  made  towards  a  higher  educational  standard. 

2.   Art,  Music,  Literature,  Science,  Philosophy 

The  Americans  do  not  have  music  in  their  blood  as,  for 
instance,  the  Russians  do,  but  they  have  a  taste  for  it, 
they  respect  it  and  they  realize  its  social  value.  European 
skeptics  make  fun  of  the  instinctive  enthusiasm  of  Ameri 
cans,  who  not  only  buy  up  ancient  and  modern  works  of 
art  all  over  the  world,  but  make  collections  of  the  artists 
themselves,  not  to  mention  celebrities  of  all  kinds.  There 
is  not  a  single  famous  actor,  actress,  tenor,  baritone, 
soprano,  professor,  literary  man,  painter,  architect,  sculp 
tor,  writer,  poet,  savant,  engineer,  orator,  doctor,  surgeon, 
aviator  or  runner  who  has  not  been  asked  to  make  himself 
or  herself  known  to  the  American  public.  Some  people 
see  nothing  but  "  snobisme,"  or  slavish  imitation,  in  all 
this.  In  any  case,  it  is  a  very  intelligent  form  of  "  snob 
isme,"  and  I  would  rather  call  it  competition  of  a  high  and 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS   AND   OHIO  245 

useful  kind.  What  would  be  said  if  the  Americans  pro 
fessed  to  be  able  to  do  everything  for  themselves  and 
thought  their  local  celebrities  good  enough  for  them? 
They  have  avoided  such  a  mistake.  They  have  gone  to 
the  world's  school,  and  yet  people  laugh  at  them !  Such 
criticism,  which  luckily  has  no  effect,  will  not  interfere 
with  the  normal  course  of  international  development. 
It  is  natural  that  works  of  art  should  be  subject,  like  every 
thing  else,  to  the  ordinary  laws  of  supply  and  demand  and 
should  emigrate  to  those  countries  in  which  they  are  most 
appreciated,  and  it  is  natural  that  artists  should  go  the 
same  way.  So  much  the  worse  for  the  public  that  cannot 
give  them  a  home  in  their  own  country  and  wants  to  keep 
them  without  paying  for  them !  The  immigration  of 
masterpieces  and  intellectual  producers  in  America  is  the 
logical  outcome  of  American  activity.  By  importing  the 
best  pictures,  the  finest  works  of  art  and  the  foremost 
artists  in  the  world,  the  Americans  lay  the  foundations 
of  their  higher  education.  From  private  museums  and 
collections  this  education  spreads  to  the  masses  by  means 
of  the  magazines,  picture  postal  cards  and  other  kinds  of 
reproduction,  and  the  same  process  goes  on,  to  an  even 
greater  extent,  with  the  immigration  of  music  and  musi 
cians.  The  Americans  need  music.  It  provides  them 
with  an  interpreter  and  a  connecting  link  at  the  same  time. 
It  establishes  an  invisible  bond  between  all  who  listen  to 
it,  and  gives  them  something  that  acts  as  a  complement 
to  ordinary  language  and  expresses  what  they  cannot 
convey  in  words.  This  new,  ideal,  international  language 
raises  people's  minds  above  the  petty  squabbles  of  every 
day  life  and  recruits  them,  so  to  speak,  as  members  of  a 
tacitly  recognized  association  for  good  and  for  peace. 
There  comes  a  day  when  grace  visits  even  the  scoffers, 
and  they  find  themselves  influenced  by  hitherto  unfamiliar 
ideas  and  sentiments  and  led  into  a  new  path.  In  this 


246  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

way  a  revulsion  of  feeling  is  fairly  rapidly  brought  about 
in  all  civilized  countries.  It  is  a  revulsion  that  will  deepen 
the  chasm  already  existing  between  the  generations  of 
yesterday  and  those  of  to-morrow  —  between  the  peoples 
of  the  past  who  lived  in  isolation  and  rivalry,  knowing 
nothing  of  one  another,  and  the  peoples  of  the  future,  who 
will  be  constantly  in  contact  and  cooperation. 

Musical  education  in  France  began  to  make  headway 
among  the  public,  as  did  other  forms  of  progress,  some 
forty  years  ago,  shortly  after  our  disastrous  war ;  and  we, 
like  other  countries,  have  exported  music  and  musicians. 
The  Americans  have  become  eager  clients  of  ours.  This 
does  not  mean  that  their  tastes  are  exclusive.  Most  of 
them  began  by  having  German  masters.  They  have 
organized  symphony  orchestras  all  over  the  country,  not 
only  in  the  East  and  at  Chicago,  but  at  St.  Louis,  St.  Paul, 
Kansas  and  Denver.  Cincinnati  was  trying,  in  1911,  to 
establish  popular  concerts.  Chicago  has  its  musical 
society,  the  Mendelssohn  Club,  and  its  college  of  music. 
St.  Paul  has  its  Schubert  Club,  whose  classical  concerts 
are  given  at  the  First  Baptist  Church.  I  have  already 
referred  to  the  magnificent  organ  built  at  Salt  Lake  for  the 
Mormons,  and  at  the  Tabernacle  I  could  have  heard  a 
choir  of  175  picked  singers,  similar  to  the  Chicago  male 
choir.  At  Milwaukee  not  only  lectures  but  concerts  take 
place  in  the  church  or  the  Pabst  Theater.  There  are  two 
well-known  musical  societies,  the  Oratorio  and  the  Women's 
Musical  Club,  at  Columbus.  The  Apollo  Club  gives 
concerts,  which  I  should  have  liked  to  attend,  at  Denver. 
The  celebrated  Boston  opera  troupe  has  a  season  at  Los 
Angeles.  Debussy's  " Prodigal  Son"  was  being  played 
at  Minneapolis  when  I  was  there.  French  opera  is  now 
given  all  over  America.  San  Francisco  has  had  "La 
Navarraise,"  "Herodiade,"  "Thais,"  "Samson  and  Deli 
lah,"  "Carmen"  and  "Lakme."  At  other  places,  "The 


THE   STATES   OF  ILLINOIS  AND   OHIO  247 

Bell-Ringer  of  Notre  Dame"  and  older  operas,  such  as 
"Mignon"  or  even  "La  Juive,"  are  given,  and  it  is  quite 
usual  to  see  the  names  of  Massenet,  Saint-Saens,  Delibes 
and  Bizet  on  the  theater  posters. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  believe  that  only  the  upper 
classes  appreciate  music.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  penetrating 
everywhere  and  making  up  for  lost  time.  The  people  love 
it.  In  proof  of  this,  let  me  cite  an  instance  taken,  not  from 
New  York  or  Boston,  but  from  the  Far  West.  At  San 
Francisco,  as  in  the  rest  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  world,  Christmas 
is  the  great  popular  festival  of  the  year  —  a  great  human 
outburst  of  hope  and  joy.  How  did  the  people  of  San 
Francisco  celebrate  it  at  the  end  of  the  year  1911,  and 
how  do  they  propose  to  celebrate  it,  weather  permitting, 
in  future  years?  By  a  really  popular  concert,  held  in  a 
public  square.  A  hundred  thousand  listeners  were  packed 
together,  under  the  half  light  of  a  mild  evening,  in  the 
open  space  formed  by  the  intersection  of  four  main  streets. 
Most  of  the  people  were  standing ;  the  others  were  at  the 
lighted  windows  of  the  buildings  and  skyscrapers  over 
looking  the  square.  They  were  like  swarms  of  bees  in 
the  cells  of  an  enormous  hive,  or  simply  like  spectators  in 
the  galleries  of  a  fifteen-story  theater.  The  performers 
were  on  an  immense  platform  facing  Market  Street.  They 
consisted  of  an  orchestra,  a  French  grand  opera  troupe, 
and  various  choirs,  such  as  those  of  the  Opera,  Columbia 
Park,  Mountain  Ash,  the  Cathedral  Mission,  etc.  For 
tunately  it  was  a  beautifully  fine  evening.  The  moon 
was  at  the  full,  and  the  stars  also  joined  in  the  festival. 
The  concert  began  at  seven  o'clock  and  was  carried  out 
amid  complete  and  reverential  silence.  It  was  as  if  a 
whole  people  had  assembled  to  pay  homage  to  the  majesty 
of  the  night !  Not  a  word  or  an  exclamation  could  be 
heard  while  any  one  of  the  selections  was  being  given,  but 
when  the  music  ceased,  there  was  loud  and  prolonged  ap- 


248  AMERICA   AND   HER    PROBLEMS 

plause.  They  heard  the  chorus  from  "Cavalleria  Rus- 
ticana,"  the  Hallelujah  Chorus  by  Handel,  "Hosannah," 
the  valse  from  " Romeo  and  Juliet"  by  Gounod,  "Noel" 
and  Gounod's  ''Bells/'  When  Kubelik  came  forward 
with  his  violin,  the  deafening  applause  stopped  as  if  by 
magic.  Like  the  orchestra,  the  whole  assembly  was  swayed 
by  his  bow. 

Play  Again! 

A  little  boy,  perched  on  the  top  of  Lotta's  fountain, 
was  heard  to  exclaim:  "Play  again!"  He  had  never 
heard  anything  like  it  before.  That  night  must  have  been 
a  revelation  to  thousands  of  miserable  creatures. 

The  finest  effect  of  all  was  at  the  end,  when  the  crowd, 
following  the  lead  of  the  singers  and  orchestra,  took  up 
the  "Adeste  Fideles"  with  one  voice.  Without  knowing 
it,  they  gave  simultaneous  expression  to  sentiments  which 
are  supposed  to  be  different  but  in  reality  are  identical  - 
respect  for  art  and  Nature,  faith  in  humanity,  love  and 
good  will. 

Why  do  we  never  see  such  spectacles  in  Europe  even  on 
fine  summer  days  or  evenings?  Why  is  such  a  festival  so 
American?  Because  it  is  an  impossibility  unless  some  of 
the  more  favored  members  of  the  community  are  willing 
to  take  it  in  hand  and  organize  it.  In  other  countries, 
people  of  this  class  have  become  skeptics.  The  Americans 
are  not  biases;  their  ambition  and  curiosity  have  no 
limits.  Are  they  not  trying  to  find  out  whether  the  primi 
tive  sounds  of  Indian  and  negro  music  cannot  be  preserved 
for  the  benefit  of  posterity  by  means  of  the  phonograph? 
I  have  known  lectures  to  be  given,  with  very  fine  dissolving 
views,  for  the  purpose  of  making  the  American  of  to-day 
acquainted  with  the  North  American  Indian.  One  of 
these  days  the  Indians  of  the  West  and  South,  the  Iroquois, 
Hurons,  Sioux,  Comanches  and  Apaches  will  have  their 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS  AND   OHIO  249 

turn.  With  the  views  are  given  Indian  war  songs  and 
the  well-known  war  whoops.  These  are  a  suitable  accom 
paniment  to  the  tortures  and  scalp  dances,  which  strike 
me  as  typical  of  war  and  its  unfruitfulness.  War,  as  is  its 
wont,  has  destroyed  everything  among  the  Indians,  even 
down  to  their  love  songs  and  lullabies.  Musicians,  lec 
turers,  learned  men  and  folklore  experts  are  combining 
to  make  these  lectures  as  attractive  as  possible.  Efforts 
are  being  made  to  ascertain  what  traces  are  left  of  the  old 
French  songs  sung  by  our  pioneers  and  the  hymns  that  our 
missionaries  tried  to  teach  the  savages,  just  as  traces  of 
African  or  Spanish  influences  can  be  found  in  negro  melo 
dies  and  dances.  To  put  the  matter  in  a  nutshell,  there 
is  the  awakening  of  music,  as  of  everything  else,  in  the 
United  States. 

A  Few  Words  on  American  Literature,  Science  and 
Philosophy 

Perhaps  I  ought  to  stop  now  for  a  moment  and  say  at 
least  a  few  words  of  American  literature,  science  and 
philosophy.  It  would  be  easy  to  summarize  what  has  been 
written  and  said  about  it.  There  is  indeed  a  great  and 
admirable  effort  to  transfer  from  Europe  to  the  United 
States  the  center  of  the  world  erudition ;  but  I  deliberately 
refuse  to  extend  my  task.  I  am  not  willing  to  assume 
superficially  the  work  which  has  been  done  and  will  be 
done  excellently  by  so  many  others.  I  leave  this  immense 
subject  to  the  respected  European  writers  who  have  given 
or  give  their  lives  to  it.  A  few  words  would  be  worse  than 
nothing.  The  American  writer  is  interested  in  anything 
that  is  life,  —  scientific,  social,  economic,  material  and  moral 
progress,  actual  politics  or  history;  he  uses  the  latest 
refinements  or  discoveries  to  ascertain  facts  and  illustrate 
his  observations ;  he  tries,  at  any  price,  to  reach  the  atten- 


250  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

tion  of  his  readers,  all  more  or  less  very  busy,  but  still 
disposed  to  learn  and  to  read  and  to  propagate  good  books. 
Excellent  books  of  education  are  daily  published  in  all  the 
great  centers  of  the  United  States.  Books  are  respected 
as  guides.  American  printing  and  binding  can  too  easily 
compete  with  our  actual  French  ways.  I  read  almost 
every  day,  in  the  newspapers,  magazines  or  reviews,  ex 
cellent  articles,  which  are  not  generally  elaborated  with  so 
much  care  as  ours,  but  are  deep,  interesting  and  genuine. 
But  I  must  pursue  my  journey. 

3.    The  American  Barber 

I  was  invited  by  the  French  residents  at  Chicago  to 
attend  the  annual  banquet  of  their  Friendly  Society  at  the 
La  Salle  Hotel.  It  was  held  just  after  my  lecture,  but, 
though  I  was  very  tired,  I  did  not  fail  to  go.  It  unfor 
tunately  reminded  me  that  Frenchmen,  despite  their  great 
individual  merit,  often  make  themselves  quite  as  conspic 
uous  by  their  quarrels  as  by  the  good  they  are  capable  of 
accomplishing. 

Next  morning  I  paid  a  visit  to  the  Alliance  Franchise. 
It  pleased  me  so  much  that  I  followed  it  up,  in  the  after 
noon,  by  another  lecture,  in  French  this  time,  for  the  benefit 
of  Chicago's  French-speaking  ladies,  whose  minds,  imagina 
tions,  tastes  and  even  eyes  are  turned  towards  France  as 
to  a  magnetic  pole.  I  must  refrain,  however,  from  de 
scription,  so  as  to  leave  myself  space  to  refer  to  a  very 
interesting  experience  which  I  had  previously  had  in  the 
palatial  barber  shop  in  the  basement  of  the  Blackstone 
Hotel.  It  was  magnificent  in  white  marble,  gilding  and 
electric  light,  and  had  modern  art  decoration  of  the  most 
refined  description.  This  kind  of  shop  is  in  reality  a  palace 
where  silent  operators,  in  white  overalls  like  a  surgeon's, 
take  possession  of  the  customers  deposited  at  their  door 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS  AND   OHIO  251 

by  the  elevator.  I  have  always  shaved  myself,  and  I  have 
been  inclined  to  consider  the  man  who  puts  himself  under 
another's  razor  as  not  amounting  to  much ;  but  I  do  not 
cut  my  own  hair,  and  I  used  my  deficiency  in  this  respect 
as  a  means  of  getting  into  touch  with  the  American  Figaro. 
The  barber  in  the  United  States  has  widened  the  scope  of 
his  business  to  a  remarkable  extent,  and  he  performs  the 
same  services  all  over  the  country,  whatever  may  be  his 
nationality  or  his  color,  the  only  difference  being  in  his 
outfit.  In  some  places  he  has  quite  a  parlor,  and  in  others 
he  operates  almost  in  public.  I  attracted  attention  at 
San  Antonio,  in  Texas,  by  the  persistence  with  which  I 
stared  for  at  least  half  an  hour  at  the  wide-open  fronts 
of  two  or  three  barber  shops. 

The  patients  take  up  Roman  or  Oriental  attitudes  and 
lie  perfectly  inert,  like  so  many  corpses  in  the  hands  of  a 
bathing  attendant;  but,  first  of  all,  they  have  to  hoist 
themselves  on  to  long  chairs  with  all  sorts  of  mechanical 
devices,  much  more  complicated  than  those  of  a  dentist's 
chair.  They  lie  stretched  out  with  their  eyes  shut,  look 
ing  like  dead  men,  and  the  barber  reigns  supreme  over 
them.  The  shaving  is  only  a  beginning.  Every  muscle 
of  the  head  gets  its  share  of  massage,  and  then  electricity 
is  brought  into  play.  Forehead,  cheeks,  nose,  mouth  and 
chin  all  respond  to  the  frenzied  appeals  of  a  roller,  manip 
ulated  by  the  operator  very  much  as  a  gardener  waters 
his  flowers  with  a  jet.  Then  the  head  has  to  be  rubbed 
and  dried  and  bandaged,  and  next  the  hands  and  nails 
are  manicured  by  very  smart-looking  girls.  All  this  is 
done  in  full  view  of  passers-by  and  is  very  amusing  for 
strangers.  I  should  probably  be  at  San  Antonio  now  if 
the  looks  the  operators  gave  me  had  not  made  me  ashamed 
of  my  curiosity. 

Every  barber  at  Chicago  is  a  gentleman,  and  every 
manicurist  is  a  young  lady.  The  one  at  the  Blackstone 


252  AMERICA   AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

Hotel  was  quite  remarkable.  While  I  was  lying  almost 
at  full  length  and  being  operated  upon,  I  kept  one  eye 
open  so  as  to  watch  her.  She  was  fair,  refined  and  dis 
tinguished  in  appearance.  She  looked  like  the  typical 
typewriter  girl  who  ends  by  making  a  rich  marriage. 
She  was  quite  absorbed  in  her  duties.  She  sat  beside  a 
chair  on  which  a  young  man  of  about  thirty  was  reclining. 
Between  her  two  white  palms  she  held  a  hand  he  had 
abandoned  to  her  ministrations.  She  opened  and  closed 
it,  manipulated  it  and  might  almost  be  said  to  have  made  a 
plaything  of  it,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  she  was  not  doing 
it  for  amusement,  and  was  working  on  the  hand  just  as 
if  she  were  modeling  in  wax.  And  what  was  the  young 
man  doing  or  saying  while  this  angelic  being  leaned  over 
him  with  his  hand  in  hers?  He  was  calmly  holding  his 
newspaper  in  the  other  hand  and  reading  steadily. 

Here  is  something  we  shall  never  see  in  France,  I  thought. 
In  America  it  is  perfectly  natural,  and  it  explains  a  great 
many  things.  Sensuality  is  reduced  to  its  minimum  in  the 
United  States.  It  is  put  on  one  side,  and  at  first  no  one 
has  time  to  think  about  it;  later  on,  its  danger  in  a  new 
country  is  realized.  The  joint  education  of  the  sexes 
has  thus  become  possible.  Girls  can  do  anything,  and  they 
finally  exteriorize  themselves  and  satisfy  pa"rt  of  their 
natural  instincts  by  devoting  themselves  to  various  forms 
of  work,  social  activity  or  physical  exercise,  and  by  de 
grees  the  calls  of  Nature  become  less  frequent  and  less 
imperative.  I  do  not  know  whether  this  can  be  described 
as  happiness  or  as  virtue,  but  it  is  a  fact,  and  this  fact 
plays  a  very  important  part  in  the  life  of  the  United  States. 

4.    The  Universities  of  Chicago  and  Illinois.     Chicago 

Much  to  my  regret,  the  necessity  of  condensing  prevents 
me  from  describing  the  luncheon  given  by  Dr.  Judson, 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS   AND   OHIO  253 

president  of  the  university,  at  which  I  met  the  pick  of 
the  professors,  or  the  conversations  that  followed  it  and 
lasted  until  the  time  came  for  my  address.  The  Univer 
sity  of  Chicago,  endowed  by  Mr.  Rockefeller  with  truly 
royal  liberality,  is  undergoing  a  process  of  continual  and 
unlimited  extension.  It  is  located  a  long  way  from  the 
city  and  has  the  advantage  of  pure  air  and  of  verdure,  which 
has  been  preserved  as  far  as  possible  and  scientifically 
added  to.  Every  one  of  the  university  buildings  has  been 
provided  by  private  generosity.  "  Money  given  away 
here"  might  be  the  motto  of  every  American  city.  Most 
of  these  buildings  are  copies  —  not  always  faithfully  or 
correctly  made  —  of  old  university  buildings  in  England, 
and  are  more  or  less  distantly  related  to  Magdalen  College, 
the  refectory  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  and  the  chapel  of 
King's  College,  Cambridge.  All  the  laboratories,  as  well 
as  the  dormitories  for  girl  and  young  men  students,  are 
built  around  a  big  "campus'1  and  help  to  make  up  quite 
a  city,  with  boulevards  turfed  and  planted  and  beflowered 
on  the  latest  principles,  and  with  fine  open  promenades  on 
which  stand  the  palatial  buildings  lavished  on  education 
by  a  grateful  municipality.  This  university  covers  the 
whole  range  of  education,  from  the  kindergarten,  the 
primary  school  and  the  high  school  up  to  the  graduates' 
college,  that  is  to  say,  from  the  tenderest  age  up  to  the 
doctor's  degree.  The  students  are  by  no  means  drawn 
exclusively  from  Chicago,  but  also  from  distant  places  in 
the  north  and  south  of  the  United  States,  from  Texas  and 
Canada.  The  university  is  one  of  those  points  of  fusion 
that  meet  the  general  need  for  intercourse  and  common 
action  which  I  have  observed  everywhere.  This  is  not  one 
of  those  aristocratic  universities,  like  Harvard  or  Prince 
ton,  where  son  follows  father,  so  to  speak.  It  is  a  demo 
cratic  university,  not  dependent  on  the  state.  It  is  a  place 
for  mutual  rather  than  traditional  education.  There  are 


254  AMERICA   AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

a  great  many  poor  girl  students,  who  manage  to  pay  their 
fees  by  earning  their  living.  It  is  preeminently  a  field  for 
the  joint  education  of  the  sexes.  I  cannot  say  it  is  a  tri 
umph  for  this  system,  for  I  have  heard  some  of  the  pro 
fessors  object  to  it  as  being  better  suited  to  education 
than  to  instruction.  The  French  professors,  for  instance, 
who  were  formed  by  such  masters  as  Gaston  Paris  and 
Lancon,  complain  that  they  cannot  teach  the  two  sexes 
satisfactorily,  at  the  same  time.  " Rabelais"  or  "Don 
Quixote"  interests  some,  but  not  all,  and  a  tragedy  by 
Corneille,  such  as  "Horace,"  appeals  more  to  the  girls  than 
to  the  young  men. 

Urbana 

I  left  the  University  of  Chicago,  meditating  on  the 
progress  accomplished  since  the  first  lecture  I  delivered 
there,  at  the  request  of  the  late  President  Harper  in  1902. 
Next  day,  I  completed  my  visit  by  starting  off  by  the  9.40 
train  to  spend  the  day  at  the  state  university  in  the  little 
town  of  Urbana. 

Toward  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  I  reached  the  sta 
tion  that  serves  the  twin  cities  of  Champaign  and  Urbana. 
As  usual,  I  was  met  at  the  station  by  the  organizers 
of  my  lectures,  and  very  little  time  was  available  dur 
ing  the  day  for  a  motor  drive,  but  it  nevertheless  enabled 
me  to  enjoy  another  change  of  climate.  I  have  encoun 
tered  almost  every  kind  during  my  three  months'  travel 
ing  in  various  latitudes.  When  I  left  New  York  and 
Washington,  the  trees  were  bare.  They  were  green  at 
New  Orleans  and  in  blossom  in  San  Francisco,  asleep 
under  the  northern  snows  of  Colorado,  undecided  at  Kansas 
City,  opening  out  at  St.  Louis,  and  still  somnolent  at  St. 
Paul  and  Chicago,  but  here  at  Urbana  is  spring  again  - 
cold,  but  dressed  in  tender  green.  It  is  not  only  a  change 
of  climate,  but  of  atmosphere.  I  have  passed  suddenly 


THE   STATES   OF  ILLINOIS   AND   OHIO  255 

from  the  ample  and  intense  vitality  of  a  great  manufactur 
ing  city,  Chicago,  to  the  quiet,  the  simple  life.  Americans 
are  quite  accustomed  to  these  contrasts  and,  in  fact,  live 
by  them.  Urbana  is  to  Chicago  what  Boulder  is  to  Denver 
and  what  Berkeley  is  to  San  Francisco.  There  is  a  general 
uprising  of  new  and  very  varied  centers  of  activity,  each 
supplying  something  that  the  others  lack. 

As  was  the  case  at  Madison,  I  was  entertained  at  lunch 
eon  at  the  University  Club  by  the  professors,  and  I  was 
immediately  convinced  of  the  cordial  spirit  in  which  the 
day's  arrangements  had  been  made.  My  lecture  was 
given  in  the  afternoon  at  the  Auditorium,  and  I  found  the 
great  hall  packed  with  attentive  girls  and  young  men.  The 
students'  band  opened  the  proceedings  with  the  "Mar 
seillaise"  and  closed  them  with  the  "Star-spangled  Banner." 
At  first,  as  usual,  my  audience  showed  nothing  more  than 
polite  curiosity,  as  if  they  had  come  quite  as 'much  to  see 
the  foreign  lecturer  as  to  hear  him.  Their  expressions, 
however,  soon  began  to  show  an  awakening  of  interest, 
and  I  could  see  that  what  I  said  was  being  followed.  They 
were  with  me  as  the  course  of  my  address  changed  from 
left  to  right  and  from  right  to  left,  went  up  or  down  or 
stopped.  Their  expression  altered  from  uncertainty  to 
a  clear  understanding,  developing  into  bright  intelligence. 
I  was  strongly  reminded  of  a  remark  made  by  Phillips 
Brooks  after  he  had  given  the  young  people  of  Boston  one 
of  those  homely  addresses  which  exercised  their  influence 
quite  as  much  after  his  death  as  during  his  lifetime :  "This 
is  something  that  will  spoil  you  and  turn  you  away  from 
every  other  duty." 

After  my  address  I  felt  the  need  of  fresh  air  and  exercise 
to  work  off  my  excitement.  Several  young  professors 
accompanied  me,  and  thanked  me  for  what  I  had  said. 
They  abstained  from  commonplace  remarks,  and  summed 
up  what  they  considered  to  be  the  results  of  the  meeting. 


256  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

They  laid  special  stress  on  the  value  of  experimental  teach 
ing  to  them  in  these  complex  and  little-known  questions, 
not  only  from  the  practical  point  of  view,  but  as  a  source 
of  inspiration.  They  all  saw  the  value  of  a  good  foreign 
policy  in  the  shape  of  a  permanent  policy  of  conciliation. 
One  of  them  remarked:  "You  have  crystallized  opinion 
and  are  helping  to  create  a  definite  demand,  which  has 
hitherto  been  merely  subconscious,  for  international 
justice.  It  is  a  good  action."  After  a  long  walk,  I  was 
left  with  only  one  companion,  who  remarked  in  the  most 
natural  way :  "  You  are  nearer  to  God  than  a  great  many 
ministers  are." 

The  Religion  of  the  Future 

This  remark  explains  what  religion  is,  or  ought  to  be, 
in  the  eyes  of  a  great  many  Americans.  Any  man  who 
renders  service  to  his  kind  in  word  or  deed  is  virtually  a 
minister,  not  of  any  church,  but  of  the  Christian  religion. 
This  American  religion,  to  which  I  propose  to  revert,  is 
incomprehensible  in  Europe.  It  may  be  said  to  have  had 
no  existence  in  the  past.  It  concerns  itself  with  the  pres 
ent  and  especially  with  the  future  —  the  future  of  human 
ity.  It  is  practical,  like  all  forms  of  American  action.  It 
exalts  everything  that  strengthens  courage,  confidence, 
self-sacrifice  and  initiative.  It  has  its  saints,  who  have  no 
connection  with  those  in  the  calendar  and  are  simply  men 
who  were  useful  to  their  fellows.  Washington,  Jefferson, 
Franklin,  Madison,  Lafayette,  Pasteur,  Victor  Hugo, 
Beethoven,  Columbus  and  Livingstone  are  saints. 

The  Cosmopolitan  Club 

At  Urbana,  as  elsewhere,  I  was  of  course  invited  to  pay 
a  visit  to  the  Cosmopolitan  Club,  where  young  students 
from  every  country  under  the  sun,  from  America,  Europe, 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS   AND  OHIO  257 

Africa  and  Asia,  meet  under  the  same  roof  and  form  a 
symbol  of  the  possible  union  of  humanity.  It  is  impossible 
to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  American  universities 
constitute,  in  a  still  greater  degree  than  those  of  other  free 
countries,  nothing  less  than  centers  of  revolution,  in  regard 
to  countries  under  absolute  monarchies.  I  have  already 
mentioned  the  growing  objection  of  the  American  mentality 
to  the  German  system  of  managing  people  by  military 
methods,  but  these  objections  are  very  mild  in  compari 
son  with  the  ideas  spread  by  Russian  and  Polish  students 
throughout  the  country,  against  absolutism.  One  need 
only  look  through  the  pages  of  the  Cosmopolitan,  the  hand 
some  illustrated  volumes  in  which  the  work  of  the  con 
gresses  or  conventions  of  the  International  Association  of 
" Cosmopolitan  Clubs"  is  recorded,  or  the  review  called 
the  Cosmopolitan  Student,  published  by  the  association  at 
Madison  under  the  motto :  "  Above  all  nations,  humanity." 
Every  speech  made  by  a  Slav  student  may  be  summed  up 
in  these  words:  "The  student  is  the  victim — the  Govern 
ment  is  the  Executioner."  The  1909  volume  contains 
the  text  of  a  speech  on  the  part  played  by  the  Russian  stu 
dent  in  the  struggle  for  liberty.  This  part  consists  in 
getting  killed,  and  is  thus  defined  by  Mrs.  Anna  Walling : 
"The  Russian  student's  traditional  duty  is,  as  it  has 
always  been,  to  go  to  prison,  to  Siberia,  or  to  penal  servi 
tude  for  the  good  of  the  people,  and  the  traditional  duty 
of  the  universities  still  is  to  keep  up  the  supply  of  revolu 
tionary  conspirators."  "This  is  why  Siberia  now  contains 
more  educated  inhabitants  than  any  other  part  of  the  em 
pire,  whereas  it  used  to  be  the  most  illiterate."  Here  again 
there  is  no  distinction  between  the  sexes.  The  list  of  exiles 
to  Siberia,  referred  to  in  the  speech  in  question,  contains  the 
names  of  women  as  well  as  men.  It  is  another  connecting 
link  between  Russian  and  American  university  students; 
between  the  American  woman  and  the  Russian  woman. 


258  AMERICA  AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

The  Chinese  Revolution 

No  government  can  do  anything  against  this  movement, 
which  is  neither  vague  nor  reckless,  but  is,  on  the  contrary, 
well  thought  out.  The  leading  article  in  the  Cosmo 
politan  Student  for  March,  1910,  is  written  by  the  presi 
dent  of  the  association,  a  Chinese  student,  C.  C.  Wang. 
It  suggests  a  small  but  definite  plan  of  action.  "Let  us 
begin,"  he  says,  "by  strengthening  our  various  chapters  or 
clubs,  and  then  let  us  get  into  touch  with  similar  organ 
izations  in  Europe  and  extend  our  international  influence, 
but  the  first  thing  is  to  strengthen  our  chapters,  and  this 
depends  on  the  action  of  a  small  number  of  energetic  men" 
It  does  not  require  much  intelligence  to  see  a  connection 
between  this  movement  in  the  United  States  and  the  Chinese 
revolution,  and  the  rest. 

Europe  does  not  worry  about  China,  and  yet  that  coun 
try  will  be  a  real  source  of  danger  if  we  persist  in  our  mis 
taken  ideas;  the  remedy  is  to  see  things  as  they  are. 
This  is  a  belief  I  have  constantly  asserted,  and  my 
journey  through  the  United  States  has  strengthened  it. 
At  Urbana,  for  instance,  I  saw  young  Chinese  who  aroused 
in  my  mind  feelings  which  many  Europeans  do  not  believe 
they  could  entertain  at  all  and  which  surprised  even  my 
self  —  feelings  of  strong  liking,  confidence  and  admira 
tion.  Many  of  these  young  Chinese  are  models  of  intel 
ligence,  good  behavior,  tact  and  decision.  Healthy  living, 
on  American  lines,  has  developed  their  bodies,  broadened 
their  chests  and  given  them  an  expression  of  self-confidence 
unmingled  with  hardness.  They  come  of  a  stock  familiar 
for  many  generations  with  a  high  standard  of  moral 
education  which  in  itself  is  sufficient  to  command  respect 
and  facilitates  social  intercourse,  union  and  friendship  be 
tween  them  and  other  foreigners  of  the  same  moral  worth 
as  themselves.  The  American  religion  is  quite  wide  and 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS   AND   OHIO  259 

tolerant  enough  to  admit  these  Chinese,  and  consequently 
they  derive  great  benefit  from  their  studies,  their  literary  and 
scientific  education  and  their  manner  of  life  in  the  United 
States.  All  this  provides  them  with  a  complete  initiation,  the 
consequences  of  which  ought  to  give  us  much  ground  for  re 
flection.  A  new  variety  of  the  human  race,  with  great  qual 
ities  and  incalculable  numbers,  is  beginning  to  bestir  itself 
after  a  prolonged  sleep,  and  its  future  is  beyond  estimate. 
I  tried  in  vain,  more  than  twenty  years  ago,  to  arouse 
my  own  country  to  what  I  called  the  coming  peril,  the 
awakening  of  new  countries,  and  their  advantages,  in  the 
war  of  competition  against  rival  military  powers.  My 
warnings  were  treated  as  nothing  but  imaginary  fears, 
whereas  the  real  purport  of  my  advice  was:  "Stop  fight 
ing  among  yourselves  and  join  in  attending  to  your  common 
interests  and  your  duties  in  regard  to  these  new  countries. 
Stop  sowing  injustice,  oppression  and  hatred  in  China,  or 
you  will  reap  revolt  and  chastisement."  I  had  my  trouble 
for  nothing,  but  the  emancipation  of  China  has  begun. 
Hundreds  of  young  Chinese  are  being  educated  and  brought 
up  as  American  citizens  throughout  the  territory  of  the 
United  States,  and  others  in  France,  England  and  even 
Germany.  They  return  home  and  mold  generations  of 
teachers.  They  meet  with  numerous  obstacles,  but  these 
merely  inflame  their  eagerness  to  serve  their  country. 
They  want  railroads,  regular  and  rapid  means  of  com 
munication  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  the  proper 
organization  of  the  army  and  navy.  They  want  modern 
administration  and  instruction,  beginning  with  an  alphabet. 
Opposition  to  their  reform  ideas  makes  them  revolutionaries. 
Dr.  Sun  Wun,  known  as  Sun  Yat-sen,  who  was  the  tempo 
rary  president  of  the  new  Chinese  Republic,  was  one  of  these 
American  students.  He  and  his  writings  were  laid  under 
a  ban,  but  it  was  impossible  to  exclude  his  mental  influence, 
which  is  shared  by  thousands  of  other  Chinese  of  the  best 


260  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

class.  One  of  his  disciples,  Vi-Kynin  W.  Koo,  has  been 
summoned  from  Columbia  University,  where  for  eight 
years  he  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  students,  to 
Peking,  to  fill  the  post  of  secretary  to  President  Yuan 
Shih-k'ai.  What  has  taken  place  in  China  is  practically 
what  happened  in  Turkey.  The  fermentation  of  an  in 
evitable  revolution  began  on  foreign  soil  and  then  spread 
to  its  own  country.  It  is  in  the  normal  course  of  things 
that  revolution  should  begin  by  rioting,  but  it  is  none  the 
less  revolution,  hatched  by  Europe  and  America.  It  is 
true  that  this  revolution  has  been  and  is  more  and  more 
despised  and  boycotted,  like  all  liberal  efforts  of  our  time, 
like  the  Turkish  revolution,  by  the  European  diplomacy; 
it  is  a  shame  to  see  that  the  great  powers,  unable  to  unite 
for  the  service  of  a  new,  coming  nation,  which  could  become 
at  least  for  them  a  good  customer,  can  agree  only  in  their 
common  hostility  against  its  emancipation.  They  cannot 
believe  in  its  future,  not  seeing  that  this  future  is  insepar 
able  from  theirs ;  they  laugh,  even  in  France,  at  an  Eastern 
nation  frankly  anxious  to  take  inspiration  from  the  prin 
ciples  of  our  French  revolution ;  they  think  only  of  per 
suading  the  young  statesmen  of  that  nation  to  buy  as  many 
of  the  biggest  and  costliest  dreadnoughts  as  possible.  Our 
grandchildren  will  be  more  than  disgusted  with  the  ob 
stacles  deliberately  opposed  by  the  so-called  civilized  powers 
to  the  development  of  civilization.  Still,  all  these  voluntary 
obstacles  of  ignorance  and  routine  will  not  stop  the  course  of 
progress.  It  may  be  that  the  European  governments  can 
understand  their  duty  to  China  no  more  than  their  interest, 
but  public  opinion  will  not  remain  blind  forever. 


The  Boycotting  of  Revolution  by  European  Diplomacy 

We  ought,  all  of  us,  to  lose  no  time  in  establishing  mu 
tually  acceptable  relations  with  the  Far  East.     Do  not  let 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS   AND   OHIO  261 

us  wait  until  this  policy  of  mutual  respect  is  forced  upon 
us  and  we  have  to  accept  it  as  a  humiliating  answer  to 
our  own  policy  of  former  times.  Do  not  let  us  force  China 
to  become  a  military  power  as  we  tried  to  do  with  so  many 
other  newcomers,  —  Brazil,  Argentine,  Canada,  etc.  She 
is  peaceable  but  not  spiritless.  Her  young  men,  including 
those  in  our  military  schools,  are  much  more  convinced  of 
the  usefulness  of  learning  to  build  roads,  canals,  railroads 
and  schools  than  forts  when  they  return  home,  but  they 
are  also  learning  how  a  free  man  gives  his  life  to  maintain 
his  country's  freedom.  The  days  when  the  Western  powers 
could  quarrel  beforehand  about  the  partition  of  China  have 
gone  by.  The  question  now  is,  how  to  go  on  living  with 
China  on  mutually  satisfactory  terms  of  continuous  peace. 
The  young  Chinese  I  am  constantly  meeting  are  so  many 
living  arguments  in  support  of  my  conviction.  They  are 
already  first-rate  citizens,  and  they  are  not  exceptional 
cases.  Following  the  example  of  those  who  have  gone 
before  them,  they  will  constitute  themselves  the  leaders, 
hitherto  wanting,  of  a  mass  of  over  four  hundred  million 
inhabitants.  They  are  strong,  industrious,  sober  and 
scrupulously  honest,  and  when  they  become  the  educa 
tional  factors  in  a  reorganized,  enlightened,  well-equipped 
and  free  country,  they  will  carry  weight  in  the  world's 
councils  and  markets,  to  say  nothing  of  battle  fields. 

In  adding  that  young  Indians,  Filipinos  and  Malagasys 
are  going  through  the  same  process  of  emancipatory  edu 
cation  in  the  United  States,  I  certainly  do  not  mean  to 
imply  that,  notwithstanding  the  desperate  struggle  of 
European  diplomacy,  we  are  drawing  near  to  a  universal 
republic,  but  it  is  clear  that  new  ways  are  gaining  ground 
and  that  new  scruples  will  force  themselves  upon  govern 
ments.  They  will  have  to  limit  their  ambition  and  regu 
late  their  action.  Every  one  of  them  will  have  to  submit 
to  a  system  of  voluntary  discipline.  This  discipline  has 


262  AMERICA  AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

come  into  being  together  with  the  exercise  of  liberty  and  is 
taking  shape  in  the  United  States.  I  see  proof  of  this  in 
the  triumph  of  athletic  sports,  the  progress  of  independent 
education  and  especially  in  the  joint  education  of  the 
sexes,  of  which  Urbana  provides  an  instance  even  more 
astonishing  than  all  the  others. 

5.   Women  and  the  Drink  Question 

I  wound  up  my  day  by  a  university  dinner,  to  which 
the  leading  professors  of  the  state  and  its  environs  had  been 
invited.  It  was  much  more  like  a  communion  of  ideas 
than  a  banquet.  The  toasts  were  settled  beforehand,  each 
being  allotted  to  a  speaker  and  printed  on  the  menu.  Be 
fore  the  speeches  began,  I  could  not  refrain  from  express 
ing  my  surprise  at  seeing  that,  as  was  the  case  at  the 
luncheon,  nothing  but  ice  water  was  drunk.  This  remark, 
which  I  had  frequently  made  elsewhere,  greatly  amused 
the  guests,  and  I  was  told  that  I  was  in  a  "dry  territory," 
which  meant  that  all  distilled  and  fermented  drinks  are 
forbidden  at  Urbana. 

" Forbidden  ?  "  I  asked.    "How ?   By  consent  or  by  law ?  " 

"Bylaw." 

This  required  explanation.  It  was  that  the  sale  or  offer 
of  wine,  beer  or  spirits  is  illegal  in  Urbana  and  Champaign, 
and  not  a  drop  of  them  is  to  be  had.  The  restriction  is 
absolute,  and  whoever  is  convicted  of  an  infringement  is 
severely  punished. 

"How  did  you  manage/'  I  inquired,  "to  pass  this  re 
striction  into  law  and  make  it  operative?" 

Like  many  other  laws,  this  one  was  the  outcome  of  a 
public  demand.  One  always  gets  what  one  really  wants ; 
the  difficulty  is  to  want  it.  Do  you  suppose  it  was  easy 
to  prevent  people  from  spitting  in  the  streets  and  cars  and 
bef  owling  the  city  ?  Do  you  imagine  that  a  mere  municipal 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS  AND   OHIO  263 

regulation  would  be  sufficient  to  uproot  bad  habits  once 
acquired?  Certainly  not.  The  persons  principally  inter 
ested  had  to  set  to  work.  And  who  are  they  ? 

They  are  the  women,  the  first  to  suffer  from  lack  of 
education  and  laxity  of  conduct,  and  particularly  from  the 
drink  habit.  Drunkenness  on  the  part  of  husband,  father, 
brother  or  son  reduces  the  women  to  mere  slaves  or  accom 
plices.  Here  they  declined  to  put  up  with  such  degradation 
of  themselves,  their  homes  and  their  country,  and  they 
protested.  They  had  first  to  contend  with  the  public 
authorities'  force  of  inertia.  In  the  United  States,  as  in 
other  countries,  drink  is  a  great  source  of  revenue  for  gov 
ernments  and  for  a  great  many  individuals.  Politicians 
cannot  venture  to  offend  both  the  authorities  and  the 
voters.  The  best  among  them  confine  themselves  to  feeble 
complaints,  which  do  nothing  to  prevent  the  country  from 
being  poisoned  or  to  check  drunkenness,  crime  and  racial 
degeneration,  spread  broadcast  by  the  very  same  consti 
tuted  authority  that  looks  after  national  education. 

Here  again,  righteous  wrath  and  energy  have  succeeded 
in  upsetting  the  established  order  of  things.  The  mothers 
took  united  action  —  there  are  mothers'  associations  in  the 
United  States  —  and  gradually  assembled  an  army  of 
women  around  them.  The  soldiers  of  this  army  lost  no 
time  in  futile  complaints.  They  stirred  up  the  children 
and  the  young,  who  are  always  ready  to  support  bold  ini 
tiative.  The  army  took  the  field,  gave  no  quarter ,  won 
over  the  Church,  the  intellectuals  and  the  great  bulk  of 
public  opinion,  and  eventually  became  so  powerful  as  to  be 
able  to  defy  the  public  authorities,  the  politicians  and  their 
supporters,  and  to  compel  the  legislature  at  Springfield 
to  take  a  referendum  on  the  question.  It  led  to  the  vic 
tory  the  result  of  which  I  have  just  recorded. 

This  victory  is  only  a  prelude.  As  soon  as  women  real 
ize  that  violence  in  all  its  forms,  including  those  due  to  the 


264  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

intoxication  of  drink  and  of  war,  is  the  real  danger  to  them 
selves  and  to  civilization,  they  will  abandon  their  attitude  of 
reserve,  and  humanity  will  be  indebted  to  them  for  yet 
another  benefit.  Is  it  conceivable  that  mothers  should 
have  so  long  neglected  to  take  an  active  interest  in  the 
cause  of  peace  ?  Can  it  be  that  they  have  no  use  for  their 
courage  except  to  endure  the  calamities  which  it  lies  with 
them  to  prevent?  Joan  of  Arc  gave  her  life  to  drive  the 
invader  out  of  France,  and  American  women  will  not  con 
fine  themselves  to  the  war  on  liquor.  Their  civic  influence 
will  increase  in  proportion  to  their  consciousness  of  their 
own  strength. 

6.   Cincinnati.     The  Wealthy  Man  who  does  Good 

The  name  of  this  city  is  pronounced  Cinsenata!  Why 
do  the  Americans  say  Cinsenata  instead  of  Cincinnati, 
and  Mezoura  instead  of  Missouri?  It  is  a  mystery  to  me, 
and  to  them  also.  One  man  who  adopted  a  different  pro 
nunciation  wrathfully  informed  me  that  the  others  could 
not  even  pronounce  their  names.  Well,  whatever  the 
place  be  called,  I  arrived  there  very  early  in  the  morning, 
before  time  in  fact,  after  leaving  Urbana  at  midnight.  It 
is  a  very  disagreeable  experience  to  be  turned  out  of  a 
railway  car  after  having  at  last  managed  to  go  to  sleep,  to 
stand  and  shiver  on  a  deserted  platform  and  see  the  day 
light,  as  undecided  as  one's  self,  begin  to  show  itself  in  oppo 
sition  to  the  fading  electric  lamps  in  the  gloomy  atmos 
phere  of  a  big,  monotonous,  commonplace  railroad  station. 
It  was  not  a  pleasant  first  impression,  and  the  worst  of  it 
was  that  I  could  not  see  the  friends  who  were  to  have  met  me, 
and  I  had  no  idea  where  to  look  for  them.  I  knew  them 
only  by  name  and  was  quite  ignorant  of  their  addresses. 
How  was  I  to  find  them  without  risk  of  going  wrong?  I 
could  see  no  one  through  the  clouds  of  dust  except  the 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS  AND  OHIO  265 

shadowy  forms  of  a  few  sweepers.  The  station  was  not 
only  cold  but  empty.  With  all  the  sensitiveness  of  a  French 
man,  I  immediately  fell  a  victim  to  depression,  and  my 
mind  began  to  run  upon  the  American  whose  guest  I  was 
to  be  —  Mr.  Schmidlapp,  an  important  Cincinnati  manu 
facturer  and  one  of  the  most  severely  tried  men  in  the 
world.  He  lost  his  wife  and  son  in  a  terrible  railroad 
disaster,  and  his  young  daughter  was  afterwards  killed  in 
an  automobile  accident.  I  was  very  reluctant  to  intrude 
myself  in  such  a  house  of  mourning,  but  he  had  insisted 
upon  my  coming. 

While  I  stood  on  the  platform,  not  knowing  what  to  do, 
two  gentlemen  passed  close  to  me.  They  were  as  bright 
and  full  of  conversation  as  if  the  day  had  been  well  advanced 
instead  of  only  just  begun.  We  looked  at  one  another 
inquiringly.  "M.  d'Estournelles ? "  they  asked.  "Mr. 
Schmidlapp  and  Mr.  Robertson?"  was* my  query.  They 
were  my  two  hosts.  They  had  been  waiting  for  my  train 
to  come  in  on  schedule  time,  while  I  was  waiting  for  them. 

Mr.  Schmidlapp  has  retired  from  business  but  has  not 
lost  interest  in  it.  He  has  already  disposed  of  all  his 
money,  keeping  only  enough  to  provide  himself  with  an 
annuity.  So  far  from  giving  way  to  grief,  he  devotes  the 
whole  of  his  still  remarkable  activity  and  resources  to 
doing  all  the  good  he  can.  He  does  not  allow  his  own 
sorrow  to  affect  others  and  discourage  them,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  tries  to  fortify  them  by  his  example.  He  acts 
on  the  philosopher's  pregnant  remark:  "Life  continues." 
Instead  of  beginning  to  pity  him,  I  find  myself  envying 
his  moral  courage.  Though  there  is  sometimes  a  far-away 
look  in  his  eyes,  his  laugh  is  hearty  and  hospitable.  An 
open  automobile  is  waiting  for  us  and  we  get  into  it,  while 
Mr.  Schmidlapp's  friend,  Mr.  Robertson,  the  president  of 
the  Manufacturers'  Club,  which  is  combining  with  the 
two  commercial  and  business  clubs  to  organize  my  recep- 


266  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

tion,  shakes  hands  with  us  and  goes  off  to  see  that  the 
arrangements  are  in  good  shape.  Here  again  we  have  two 
thoroughly  representative  Americans.  Though  both  very 
wealthy,  here  they  are,  up  before  daybreak,  sacrificing  their 
ease  and  even  their  private  feelings,  so  as  to  do  their  best  to 
make  a  success  of  a  meeting  in  which  their  city  is  interested. 
The  automobile  took  us  uphill  at  a  rate  that  threw  us 
into  each  other's  arms  whenever  we  turned  a  corner.  It 
seemed  to  me  foolhardy,  and  I  was  expecting  an  accident 
every  minute,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  our  wild  career  did 
not  even  interrupt  our  conversation,  and  as  in  a  dream  our 
ascent  ended  on  the  terrace  of  a  most  magnificent  natural 
amphitheater  at  the  luxuriant  summit  of  the  hills  which 
border  the  basin  of  the  Ohio.  Why  name  it?  It  is  better 
than  the  Ohio,  the  "  beautiful  river";  it  is  the  river,  the 
blood  of  the  earth's  veins  !  It  circles,  stretches  out,  winds 
its  long,  broad  sheet  of  water  into  a  majestic  curve,  and 
moves  like  a  caress,  enveloping  and  enveloped,  in  the  valley, 
which  is  both  its  creation  and  its  cradle,  through  the  herb 
age  that  it  fertilizes,  past  the  cities  to  which  it  has  given 
birth,  past  the  hills,  some  fertile,  some  wooded,  some  popu 
lated,  where  church  towers  and  factory  chimneys  point  in 
brotherly  union  to  the  sky.  It  is  another  vision  of  the 
past  and  the  future.  I  have  before  me  the  road  of  central 
penetration,  the  first  direct  route  followed  by  our  French 
Canadian  pioneers  to  Louisiana.  But  this  route  still  exists  ; 
history  has  not  been  able  to  change  nature.  The  "  beauti 
ful  river"  remains  a  symbol  of  union  between  the  East  and 
West,  an  arm  stretched  out  to  help  men  know  and  love 
one  another.  I  cannot  take  my  eyes  from  this  panorama 
where,  under  the  morning  sun  of  May,  blossom  the  ever- 
buoyant  hopes  of  man  and  the  fecundity  of  nature.  The 
great  curve  which  forms  this  river  calls  up  in  my  mind 
other  curves  not  less  eloquent,  those  by  which  Carriere 
was  all  his  life  inspired  when  he  painted  the  graceful  ges- 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS  AND   OHIO  267 

tures  of  the  mother  holding  her  child,  or  the  ideal  circle, 
the  spiral  without  end,  into  which  one  of  Bach's  concertos 
carries  and  elevates  us. 

The  wealthy  Cincinnati  men  who  built  their  houses  on 
the  heights  overlooking  the  Ohio  provided  themselves  with 
a  daily  panorama  of  hope  and  life.  They  appreciate  and 
understand  their  privilege,  but  they  do  not  confine  them 
selves  to  mere  enjoyment  of  it.  They  do  their  best  to 
pay  for  it  and  to  make  due  amends  for  its  possession.  I 
have  already  said  that  there  are  a  great  many  wealthy 
Americans  who  do  good;  and  this  is  quite  usual.  They 
are  neither  credulous  nor  sentimental.  They  cultivate 
goodness,  not  as  a  virtue  but  as  a  form  of  wisdom  and 
strength.  I  often  hear  Americans  say  :  "  We  are  punished 
by  our  sins  and  not  for  them."  This  goodness  makes  for 
patience,  even  temper  and  kindliness. 

On  entering  Mr.  Schmidlapp's  princely  villa,  situated 
amid  lawns  and  shrubbery  and  overlooking  the  valley,  I 
encountered  his  grandchildren,  who  were  already  up  and 
in  possession  of  the  premises.  They  had  made  the  great 
hall  and  parlor  into  a  motor  track,  an  electric  railway  sta 
tion  and  a  bicycle  race  track.  As  every  one  knows,  chil 
dren  reign  supreme  in  the  United  States.  Another  very 
modern  grandfather  once  said  at  dinner,  when  the  mistress 
of  the  house  asked  him  if  he  would  take  the  wing  or  the  leg 
of  a  chicken:  "I  don't  know.  I  have  never  eaten  the 
wing ;  when  I  was  young,  we  left  it  to  our  parents,  and  now 
we  keep  it  for  the  children." 

If  I  were  not  afraid  of  offending  so  delicate  a  sentiment, 
I  would  say  that,  in  America,  doing  good  is  less  of  a  virtue 
than  a  resolve.  A  genuinely  successful  business  man  would 
spoil  his  career  if  he  ended  it  like  an  egoist.  He  cultivates 
a  recognition  of  his  own  good  fortune  and  a  readiness  to 
help  others,  not  as  a  duty  but  as  a  personal  satisfaction; 
it  is  his  way  of  living  in  graceful  retirement.  Many  of  the 


268  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

rich  have  gone  still  further,  and  are  competing  with  one 
another  to  see  who  will  do  the  best  work  in  the  cause  of 
charity.  Discussing  the  various  institutions  founded  by 
Andrew  Carnegie,  Mr.  Schmidlapp  frankly  told  me  that 
this  example  had  opened  his  eyes  and  that  he  was  trying 
to  imitate  it.  He  does  not  confine  himself  to  giving  money ; 
he  does  his  best,  for  instance,  to  find  out  the  most  practical 
system  of  old-age  pensions,  and  he  works  it  successfully 
for  the  benefit  of  the  large  staff  for  whom  he  is  still  morally 
responsible.  He  is,  of  course,  a  great  advocate  of  individual 
enterprise  and  a  strong  opponent  of  state  monopolies. 
One  of  his  friends,  Theodore  Marburg,  whose  guest  I  was 
at  Baltimore,  is  also,  together  with  the  whole  of  his  large 
family,  fully  persuaded  that  he  owes  a  debt  to  society  for 
his  own  prosperity,  and  he  spends  his  life  trying  to  pay  this 
debt.  Another,  Edward  Tuck,  divides  his  life  and  his 
fortune  between  the  United  States  and  France,  and  calls 
devotion  "the  highest  form  of  egotism."  Yet  another, 
Loubat,  persists  in  founding  professorships  in  Paris,  and 
organizes  excavations  in  Mexico  and  at  Delos.  Rockefeller 
made  a  present  of  Pasteur's  house  to  the  town  of  Dole. 
Hyde  was  the  originator  of  the  system  of  "exchange  pro 
fessorships."  Andrew  Carnegie  provided  the  Peace  Palace 
and  instituted  rewards  for  civic  heroism.  Vanderbilt 
created  centers  for  the  supply  of  milk  to  the  poor.  Pier- 
pont  Morgan  enriched  our  museums,  and  many  other  in 
stances  might  be  cited. 

We  must  beware  of  forgetting  that  good  actions  of  this 
kind  are  accomplished  by  Europeans  also.  I  could  mention 
them  by  thousands,  and  Americans  are,  after  all,  only 
expatriated  Europeans.  In  most  American  cities  I  found 
institutions  such  as  Tulane,  Etienne  Girard,  etc.,  all  of 
French  origin.  Michelet  gracefully  described  the  Dutch 
as  being  miserly  so  that  they  could  be  generous,  avares 
pour  etre  genereux,  and  the  phrase  can  be  applied  equally 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS  AND   OHIO  269 

well  to  many  an  industrious,  economical  and  sober  French 
man.  I  observe,  however,  that  nearly  all  these  donors, 
whether  French,  English  or  of  any  other  nationality,  are 
men  who  have  traveled.  It  seems  as  if  generosity  follows 
in  the  path  of  activity  and  slackens  in  proportion  as  we 
become  sedentary.  The  man  who  has  retired  from  his 
profession  or  lives  on  his  means  is  generally  ready  to  pull 
the  ladder  up  after  him  when  he  has  climbed  as  high  as  he 
expects  to  go,  and  he  even  forgets  how  to  return  thanks. 
Philanthropists  in  the  Old  World  have  to  try  to  counteract 
an  atmosphere  of  egotism  and  routine,  whereas,  in  the 
United  States,  the  prevailing  energy  acts  as  a  stimulant 
for  them. 

Generosity  is  simply  a  higher  form  of  youthfulness  and 
activity.  When  Mr.  Schmidlapp  returns  home  from  down 
town,  he  gives  his  mind  to  rearing  chickens,  cows  and  calves, 
not  to  mention  vegetables  and  orchids.  He  also  carries 
out  social  experiments.  In  this  connection,  I  am  indebted 
to  him  for  a  new  fact,  which  is  not  without  its  value.  By 
a  lucky  coincidence,  the  Civil  War  veterans  —  living  re«- 
minders  of  the  Cincinnati  who  gave  the  city  its  name  — 
held  their  banquet  the  same  day  as  mine ;  and  they  invited 
a  distinguished  officer,  Col.  Robert  M.  Thompson,  who  was 
also  one  of  Mr.  Schmidlapp's  guests,  to  speak.  In  conver 
sation  with  him,  I  discovered  that,  in  spite  of  the  assertions 
of  a  Cincinnati  paper,  the  colonel  was  a  consistent  advocate 
of  an  American- Japanese  entente  cordiale.  Far  from  keep 
ing  to  the  mere  pleading  of  his  cause,  Colonel  Thompson  de 
votes  part  of  his  money  to  paying  the  expenses  of  several 
promising  young  Japanese  at  American  universities.  I 
have  since  lunched  with  this  alleged  jingo  at  his  home  in 
Washington.  His  daughter  sings  German  and  French 
songs  delightfully,  his  grandchildren  speak  French  with 
their  mother,  and  his  servants  and  most  trusted  assistants 
are  Japanese  or  English. 


270  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

After  a  visit  to  the  college,  I  went  to  the  club,  where  I 
met  some  of  the  leading  citizens  of  Cincinnati  and  the 
governor  of  the  state,  whose  presence  sharpened  my  feel 
ings  of  regret  and  remorse  —  for  I  speak  of  what  I  have 
seen  and  not  of  what  I  have  missed.  To  go  straight  from 
Urbana  to  Cincinnati  looks  a  simple  proposition,  especially 
as  the  traveling  was  done  by  night ;  but  the  truth  is  that 
I  went  through  three  states  —  parts  of  Illinois,  Indiana  and 
Ohio  —  and  skipped  several  places  that  I  ought  to  have 
visited  but  had  to  leave  out  owing  to  lack  of  time.  The 
trouble  with  night  travel  is  that  one  begins  to  think  there 
is  nothing  in  the  world  but  cities,  and  to  ignore  the  country. 
I  should  have  spent  at  least  a  few  hours  at  Indianapolis,  a 
great  city  of  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  inhabitants, 
from  which  I  had  received  many  urgent  and  moving  appeals, 
especially  from  Spiceland  Academy.  In  Ohio  itself,  a  state 
justly  proud  of  the  active  part  it  plays  in  the  federation 
and  of  its  great  cities,  there  was  Columbus,  the  capital, 
to  begin  with  —  another  railroad  center,  a  city  of  over  one 
hundred  and  thirty  thousand  inhabitants  and  an  important 
market  for  the  iron,  steel,  coal  and  milling  industries,  not 
to  mention  Toledo,  a  river  and  lake  port,  Dayton,  the 
home  of  the  Wright  brothers,  and  Cleveland.  I  have 
undertaken  to  return  to  the  United  States  so  as  to  visit 
several  cities  I  was  obliged  to  miss,  such  as  Athens  (Georgia) 
and  notably  Cleveland,  which  is  extending  freely,  without 
forts  and  without  fear,  opposite  Canada,  on  the  shore  of 
Lake  Erie.  Cleveland  already  has  400,000  inhabitants. 
Its  development  dates  from  the  construction  of  the  Ohio 
Canal;  its  future  is  barely  beginning. 

Cincinnati,  Cleveland's  elder  sister,  has  not  quite  so  large 
a  population.  Cincinnati,  the  Queen  of  the  West  fifty 
years  ago,  is  already  an  old  city  and  will  soon  complete  a 
century  of  legal  existence !  Its  nearness  to  the  two  states 
of  Kentucky  and  Indiana  makes  it  really  the  geographical 


THE   STATES   OF   ILLINOIS  AND   OHIO  271 

capital  of  three  states,  but  St.  Louis  has  outstripped  it, 
and  Chicago  has  deprived  it  of  the  pork  monopoly  that 
first  made  it  celebrated  in  the  business  world.  It  never 
theless  retains  its  activity  and  its  reputation,  quite  worthy 
of  a  state  that  has  set  the  others  such  great  examples  and 
whose  charitable  institutions  and  asylums  for  the  blind, 
for  the  deaf  and  dumb  and  for  backward  children  are  in 
themselves  an  indication  of  the  progress  it  has  accomplished. 
Cincinnati  still  has  its  unequaled  position  and  its  past. 
Lafayette  once  came  to  Cincinnati  with  his  son,  in  1825, 
on  a  pilgrimage  that  is  not  yet  forgotten.  A  very  old  lady, 
whom  the  French  hero  kissed  when  she  was  a  little  girl 
is  still  living,  and  well  remembers  the  event.  At  more 
than  one  of  my  lectures,  and  even  as  far  away  as  Denver, 
I  met  octogenarian  ladies  who  knew  Lafayette. 

The  banquet  in  the  evening  was  one  of  the  finest  and 
most  instructive  of  all  those  given  me  in  the  United  States. 
It  was  planned  long  beforehand,  and  the  menu  was  emblem 
atical,  not  only  of  Franco-American  union,  but  of  arbitration 
and  aviation.  It  was  attended  by  all  the  most  prominent 
manufacturers  and  business  men  in  Cincinnati  and  the 
neighboring  cities.  Not  one  of  them  even  imagined  that 
patriotism  could  be  out  of  harmony  with  the  organization 
of  peace.  They  recognize  the  obstacles  to  the  establish 
ment  of  an  honorable  and  generally  accepted  peace  basis 
in  Europe,  but  these  obstacles  are,  in  their  view,  just  so 
many  reasons  for  trying  to  overcome  them.  War,  to  their 
minds,  will  end  by  being  practically  impossible,  not  through 
the  influence  of  justice  and  morals  only  but  because,  as  a 
question  of  fact,  it  will  do  infinitely  more  harm  than  good, 
and  because  the  whole  world  will  suffer  from  this  harm 
for  generations,  and  perhaps  even  for  centuries.  I  should 
greatly  like  to  see  these  business  men  combining  with 
Norman  Angell  to  give  Berlin,  London,  St.  Petersburg  and 
Rome  the  benefit  of  their  statement  of  the  case  —  a  state- 


272  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

ment  which  is  beginning  to  be  no  novelty  in  Paris,  where 
ideas  have  certainly  made  more  progress  than  elsewhere. 
"We  want  peace,"  they  say,  "because  it  is  the  basis  of  our 
entire  national  superstructure.  Peace  endangered  is  quite 
enough  to  cause  ruin,  but  when  there  is  an  actual  breach 
of  the  peace,  and  war  is  declared  between  two  great  powers, 
we  have  a  state  of  things  that  amounts  to  voluntarily 
inflicting  a  scourge  on  the  world,  or  committing  suicide  for 
no  conceivable  reason.  The  war  between  the  United  States 
and  Spain  was,  after  all,  only  a  colonial  struggle,  like  that 
between  Russia  and  Japan  and  between  England  and  the 
Boers,  as  well  as  the  operations  in  Tunis,  Tongking  and 
Morocco.  I  am  glad  to  think  that  no  small  state  will 
ever  be  prevented  from  taking  up  arms  for  its  independence ; 
but  can  any  one  seriously  imagine  a  war  between  England 
and  Germany,  France  and  Germany  or  England  and  Russia  ? 
It  would 'mean  a  stoppage  of  life  all  over  the  world;  our 
markets  abroad  would  be  closed,  our  communications  by 
sea  interrupted  and  our  national  industry  suddenly  para 
lyzed;  and,  together  with  all  this,  we  should  have  incal 
culable  misery,  disorder,  disturbances  and  internal  and 
external  conflagrations  breaking  out  simultaneously  in 
various  parts  of  the  globe,  both  on  land  and  sea.  It  would 
be  a  foretaste  of  the  end  of  the  world.  We  have  only  to  look 
at  the  ruin  caused  in  Paris  and  London  by  a  mere  local  panic 
like  the  one  that  occurred  in  Wall  Street.  What  would  it 
be  if  the  panic  became  general  and  caused  an  exodus  from 
the  fields,  factories,  seaports,  warehouses,  stores,  schools  and 
public  offices?"1  What  every  one  wants  is  organization 
to  maintain  peace  as  the  crown  and  condition  of  progress ; 
and  I  did  not  fail  to  support  this  view.  The  most  convinc- 

1  This  is  what  we  wanted  to  prevent,  and  this  is  what  has  happened. 
The  "  inevitable  war  "  party  in  Europe  did  not  encounter  the  resistance 
fortunately  offered  to  it  hitherto  by  public  opinion  in  the  United  States. 
(March,  1915.) 


THE   STATES   OF  ILLINOIS  AND   OHIO  273 

ing  argument  of  all  I  kept  for  the  end.  I  have  worked  in 
France  for  aviation  just  as  I  have  for  arbitration,  but  I 
was  soon  caught  up  and  left  behind.  I  could  hardly  help 
indulging  in  such  reminiscences  this  evening,  as  Orville 
Wright  was  sitting  near  me.  He  was  invited  at  my  request, 
and  he  was  good  enough  to  come  from  Dayton  to  meet  me. 

Peace  and  Aviation 

With  him  I  went  over  the  ground  covered  within  three 
years.  Congress,  which  is  always  more  generous  than  Euro 
pean  parliaments,  had  just  caused  a  beautiful  commemora 
tive  medal  to  be  struck  and  presented  to  the  brothers 
Wright  in  testimony  of  the  admiration  and  gratitude  of 
the  American  nation.  But,  only  three  years  ago,  the 
Americans,  open  as  they  are  to  new  ideas,  undoubtedly 
failed  to  realize  what  their  enterprising  countrymen  were 
trying  to  do.  They  had  so  little  belief  in  the  Wrights  that 
Wilbur,  the  elder,  had  to  come  to  France,  and,  as  my  good 
luck  would  have  it,  he  carried  out  his  first  trials  in  my 
own  part  of  the  country,  at  Auvours  Camp,  near  Le  Mans. 
The  early  weeks  produced  only  a  few  seconds  of  flight,  which 
then  extended  into  minutes.  By  degrees  he  flew  higher 
and  higher  and  longer  and  longer  until  he  was  able  to 
remain  a  whole  hour  among  the  clouds,  three  hundred  feet 
high,  and  finally  he  took  a  passenger.  I  saw  all  this, 
just  as  I  saw  Farman,  Santos-Dumont,  Delagrange,  Arch 
deacon,  Lambert,  Bleriot,  Latham,  Paulhan,  Ferber  and 
many  more,  but  what  also  attracted  my  attention  was  the 
public.  Thousands  and  thousands  of  peasants  left  their 
work,  hurried  from  every  point  of  the  compass,  and  waited 
patiently  and  uncomplainingly  (those  light-headed  and  friv 
olous  Frenchmen !)  for  days  and  days,  until  the  capricious 
bird  at  length  made  up  its  mind  to  fly.  At  that  moment 
a  sort  of  transfiguration  showed  itself  on  even  the  hardest 


274  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

faces.  It  was  the  realization  of  a  hope  by  a  people  that 
has  suffered  much  but  has  never  given  way  to  despair. 
There  was  an  even  finer  and  grander  sight  next  year  on  the 
plains  of  Champagne,  at  Betheny,  where  millions  of  French 
men,  a  nation  in  themselves,  came  to  cheer  the  already 
triumphant  science  of  aviation.  It  is  generally  admitted 
that  those  days  at  Betheny  formed  a  series  of  the  finest 
possible  festivals  imaginable.  They  were  festivals  of  pa 
triotism  and  the  human  race.  There  was  nothing  admin 
istrative  or  official  about  them.  The  immense  crowd  kept 
itself  in  order  instinctively.  The  spectators  needed  no 
word  of  command  except  from  the  voice  of  a  common  con 
science  enjoining  respect  for  courage,  unassuming  pluck  and 
inventiveness.  I  might  go  further  and  say  they  were 
praying  in  a  truly  religious  spirit  for  a  better  and  happier 
future.  From  ground  watered  by  the  blood  of  centuries  of 
battles  there  went  up,  on  wings,  to  heaven,  a  symbol  of 
the  ultimate  progress  for  which  humanity  has  clamored 
untiringly  since  Prometheus's  time. 

"I  am  glad  I  lived  to  see  this,"  was  the  general  remark 
made  by  our  old  peasants  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  France.  Though  they  said  no  more,  the  rest 
could  be  read  in  their  tear-dimmed  eyes.  The  meaning  of 
what  they  had  seen  came  to  them,  not  clearly,  but  out  of  the 
depths  of  their  souls.  It  was  a  belief  that  a  great  revulsion, 
the  one  great  revulsion,  was  in  preparation  —  the  triumph 
of  reason  over  brute  force  and  of  genius  over  violence. 

Who  believed  in  such  a  triumph  ten  years  ago?  Who 
took  it  seriously  ?  It  was  a  mere  joke. 

Exactly  the  same  thing  has  happened  with  international 
justice,  another  dream  which  was  put  down  as  an  impossi 
bility  in  fact.1 

xWe  cannot  too  often  repeat  that  the  1914-1915  war  confirms  the 
dangers  we  have  pointed  out,  and  all  our  views. 

France  at  least  has  the  satisfaction  and  the  advantage  of  knowing  that 


THE    STATES    OF   ILLINOIS   AND    OHIO  275 

Next  afternoon,  after  visiting  the  gardens,  farm,  poultry 
yard  and  stables,  and  casting  a  final  glance  on  the  lovely 
panorama  of  the  Ohio,  I  finally  embarked  on  the  train 
that  was  to  land  us  next  morning  at  Washington,  where  I 
was  to  see  President  Taft  and  bring  him  news  of  his  family 
and  numerous  friends  at  Cincinnati. 

Another  attention  paid  me  (what  shall  I  become  if  people 
spoil  me  so  ?)  was  that  Mr.  Schmidlapp  came  with  me,  and 
Colonel  Thompson,  who  was  also  returning  to  Washington, 
reserved  a  train  for  us,  or  at  any  rate  two  cars  in  the  train, 
forming  a  traveling  hotel,  in  which  each  of  us  had  his  room 
communicating  with  the  parlor  and,  through  the  parlor, 
with  the  dining-room. 

7.  End  of  the  First  Part  of  My  Campaign 

Thus  ends  the  first  part  of  my  long  campaign  through 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  United  States.  I  return  to 
Washington,  my  task  accomplished.  Nothing  now  remains 
for  me  but  to  revisit  the  East,  which  I  know  already,  look 
up  my  friends  and  arrange  my  notes  and  the  ideas  I  have 
garnered  in  exchange  for  those  I  have  sown. 

she  did  not  declare  this  war.  She  has  had  to  endure  it.  She  is  carrying  it 
on  without  counting  its  cost,  regarding  it  as  a  sacred  duty  to  fight,  against 
military  despotism,  in  the  interest  of  other  nations  as  well  as  her  own. 
Two  'forces  are  in  conflict :  the  past,  represented  by  violence,  and  the 
future,  represented  by  justice.  The  latter  will  triumph,  and  then  it  will  be 
incumbent  upon  modern  civilization  to  provide  the  organization  for  which 
we  have  asked  and  for  which  we  have  paved  the  way :  the  further  organiza 
tion  of  all  forms  of  progress,  which  has  hitherto  been  wanting :  the  organiza 
tion  of  peace.  (M  arch  ,1915.) 


PART   II 
PROBLEMS 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   SPRINGTIME   OF  A  NATION 

i.  BACK  TO  WASHINGTON.  A  non-central  Federal  center.  Fate 
of  a  world  decided  by  one  city  and  one  man.  Awakening.  Out 
burst  of  spring.  Residential  quarter.  Children.  Society  women. 
Springtime  of  a  nation.  —  2.  PLAN  OF  THE  FEDERAL  CITY;  how 
it  was  carried  out.  Major  L'Enfant.  The  Capitol  taking  the 
place  of  the  Pantheon.  The  spirit  of  Franklin.  Public  spirit.  — 

3.  CITY  PLANNING.     Blessings  of  air  and  sunshine.     Religion  of 
beauty.     Walks.     Children's  crusades  against  dirt.     Women  again. 

4.  WASHINGTON'S  PARK.     Trees,  birds:   the  eagle  and  the  blue 
bird.  —  5.   THE  ART  OF  GARDENING.      Gardening  is  international 
ized  and  democratized.     Cheap  horticulture.     More  pleasure  for 
less  trouble  and  less  cost.     Bouquets  of    leaves.     Turfed  walks. 
Creation  of  natural  taste.  —  6.   MOUNT  VERNON  AND  THE  WHITE 
HOUSE.     The  American  middle   class  and   the  traditions  of  the 
simple  life.     Pilgrimages  to  Mount  Vernon.     A  city  of  gratitude. 
Visits  to  the  White  House  in  1902,  1907,    1911  and  1912.     Mr. 
Roosevelt  and  Mr.  Taft.    My  appeal  to   President  Roosevelt  in 
1902.     The  Hague  tribunal  saved  by  the  United  States.     Conse 
quences  of  this  action.     Mr.  Taft  and  arbitration  treaties.      Is  their 
failure  to  be  deplored  ?    The  White  House  as  battle  field.     Capital 
or  court  of  a  democracy  ?    The  eagle  or  the  star  ? 

i.  Back  to  Washington 

HERE  I  am,  back  again  in  the  East  after  my  long  journey 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  from  Texas  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean  and  the  neighborhood  of  British  Columbia, 
from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  prairie,  the  Mississippi 
and  the  Great  Lakes :  back  to  Washington  once  more, 
but  with  entirely  new  ideas.  Hitherto  I  had  always  come 
from  Europe,  and  everything  looked  American  to  me. 

279 


280  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

This  time  I  came  the  other  way,  leaving  America  behind 
me,  and  I  wondered  whether  everything  would  strike 
me  as  European. 

A  Non-central  Federal  Center 

This  is  the  Federal  capital's  chief  danger.  By  no  exercise 
of  human  wisdom  or  ambition  could  it  have  been  foreseen, 
very  little  more  than  a  century  ago,  that  the  capital  would 
become  so  un-central  as  to  be  more  than  2500  miles  from 
San  Francisco.  What  course  will  it  take?  Toward  the 
past,  toward  the  Old  World  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  ocean, 
or  toward  the  New  World  of  which  it  is  only  nominally  the 
center?  It  is  a  serious  question  and  brings  us  back  to 
another :  which  of  the  two  worlds  will  influence  the  other  ? 
Will  the  new  allow  itself  to  be  contaminated  by  the  faults 
of  the  old,  or  will  it  react?  All  the  young  states  I  have 
visited  and  all  the  cities  in  process  of  formation  have  made 
me  share  their  faith  in  the  future ;  but  this  future  is  not 
entirely  in  their  hands.  They  have  nothing  to  fear  from 
within,  and  still  less  from  without,  provided  they  remain 
united,  and  this  they  all  realize;  but  this  very  union 
is  centered  here  in  Washington,  and  this  is  where 
it  can  be  strengthened  or  affected,  no  matter  how  pro 
nounced  the  general  feeling  may  be,  by  a  mistake  on  the 
part  of  the  central  government.  However  jealous  the 
forty-eight  separate  states  of  the  Union  may  be  of 
their  independence,  every  one  of  them  needs  a  Federal 
government  to  keep  them  in  line,  to  turn  their  ambition 
into  one  natural  channel,  to  restrain  them  when  they  are 
impatient,  and,  in  brief,  to  assume  the  responsibility  of 
managing  the  great  public  services,  common  to  all.  So 
strong  is  still  the  feeling  of  mistrust  among  the  states  that 
they  have  not  agreed  to  let  Washington's  dream  be  a  reality 
and  allow  the  capital  to  become  both  the  political  and 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF   A  NATION  281 

intellectual  center  of  the  country  by  making  it  the  site  of  a 
great  national  university.  There  is  no  Federal  university 
at  Washington,  but  it  cannot  do  without  a  general  admin 
istrative  office  for  agriculture,  for  commerce,  customs, 
transport  and  public  health,  an  office  for  foreign  affairs  and 
a  ministry  of  national  defense.  In  other  words,  the  future 
of  the  whole  country,  prosperity,  peace  and  war  are  in  the 
hands  of  the  Federal  administration.  One  cannot  but  trem 
ble  for  the  United  States  when  it  is  remembered  that  the 
whole  of  this  administration  is  intrusted,  for  four  years,  to 
one  man !  If  we  carry  analysis  to  its  conclusion,  we  find 
that  the  fate  of  a  world  is  decided  by  one  city  and  one 
man. 

Let  us  Europeans  harbor  no  delusions  in  this  matter; 
the  risk,  though  remote,  is  no  less  for  us  than  it  is  for 
the  Americans.  Their  destiny  is  as  closely  bound  up 
with  ours  as  if  the  Atlantic  Ocean  had  no  existence  what 
ever. 

Every  one  knows  the  precautions  taken  by  the  founders 
of  the  capital  to  prevent  it  from  being  suspected  of  belonging 
to  any  one  state  more  than  the  others.  The  District  of 
Columbia  was  created  and  neutralized,  with  the  consent 
of  the  adjoining  states  of  Virginia  and  Maryland,  for  the 
express  purpose  of  placing  the  capital  in  it.  The  district 
has  no  representatives,  and  its  inhabitants  have  no  vote. 
Consequently,  the  elected  representatives  of  the  states 
are  all  equally  at  home  in  it.  The  city  itself,  after  some 
unsuccessful  experiments,  is  now  administered  by  Congress. 
This  is  a  great  advantage  as  regards  municipal  government 
—  an  advantage  that  more  than  one  capital  might  envy ; 
but  the  fact  remains  that  the  general  action  of  Congress 
is  carried  on  in  an  atmosphere  in  which  the  steadily  increas 
ing  skeptical  and  bureaucratic  element  will  end  by  being 
out  of  harmony  with  the  single-minded  enthusiasm  of  the 
country. 


282  AMERICA  AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

Awakening 

Such  were  my  reflections  as  we  reached  Washington  on 
the  morning  of  Friday,  May  5,  a  bright,  joyous  morning 
that  put  my  gloomy  thoughts  to  rout.  It  was  a  sudden 
and  surprising  outburst  of  spring  —  a  combination  of  grace, 
light  and  expansion  of  living  beings  and  things  under  a 
clear  blue  sky  and  amid  a  warmth  that  was  already  per 
ceptible. 

Residential  Quarter 

Having  a  few  hours  of  solitude  before  me,  I  took  advan 
tage  of  them  to  wander  around  the  residential  district, 
where  every  house,  in  conformity  with  a  general  scheme  of 
striking  effectiveness,  nestles  amid  shrubbery,  flowers  and 
lawns.  Each  one  has  its  own  style,  generally  resembling 
that  of  an  English  cottage,  and  is  built  of  dark  brickwork 
against  which  stands  out  the  tender  green  of  the  young  plane 
trees  and  the  Carolina  poplars  planted  in  lines  on  each  side 
of  the  street.  There  is  no  attempt  at  symmetry  in  the 
architecture  of  the  buildings,  except  that  they  are  all  made 
to  harmonize  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  trees.  There 
is  nothing  gigantic  here;  it  is  an  orderly  combination  of 
variety  and  due  restraint.  Everything  points  to  good 
manners,  voluntary  discipline,  a  general  participation  in 
upkeep,  a  spontaneous  desire  for  decorative  effect  and  the 
appearance  of  a  town  in  whose  adornment  its  inhabit 
ants  delight.  Fortunately  the  ground  is  naturally  undu 
lating,  and  leveling  has  not  been  carried  to  excess.  The 
gradients  are  as  much  as  the  promenader  could  desire. 
The  streets  are,  in  fact,  promenades  or  wooded  avenues 
striking  out  from  circles  and  squares  like  the  crossroads  in 
a  forest.  Some  one  must  have  dreamed  of  a  great  city  with 
streets  like  parks  and  gardens.  This  dream  has  become  a 
reality  at  Washington,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  cities  in 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF  A  NATION  283 

the  world.  The  statues  and  monuments,  after  which  the 
various  ovals,  " circles,"  squares,  "grounds"  and  gardens 
are  named,  are  not  all  admirable,  but  this  matters  little. 
To  my  mind,  they  are  merely  details  in  the  landscape,  to 
which  they  add  the  charm  of  naivete.  Perhaps  form 
delights  my  eye  less  than  the  sunshine  and  light  of  early 
May ;  but  Washington  is,  to  my  mind,  the  capital  of  spring, 
surpassed  by  Paris  alone.  Everything  in  it  breathes  the 
joy  of  life  and  the  art  of  living. 

Children 

Washington  has  a  very  animated  look.  The  street,  just 
as  if  it  were  a  path  through  the  woods,  belongs  to  the 
children,  —  it  is  the  same  throughout  America,  —  the 
squirrels  and  the  birds.  All  these  youngsters  disport 
themselves  freely  in  it  —  how  they  manage  it  I  do  not 
know  —  without  damaging  the  flower  beds.  Stretching 
away  into  the  distance  there  is  a  succession  of  boys  and 
girls,  all  bareheaded  and  without  any  grown-ups  to  look 
after  them,  hurrying  along  with  vigorous  strokes  of  their 
slender  legs  on  their  roller  skates.  They  carry  their  copy 
books  under  their  arms,  and  swerve  and  dart  capriciously 
like  so  many  swallows.  The  asphalt  has  been  watered  with 
an  antiseptic  solution  and  looks  as  if  it  had  been  laid  on 
purpose  for  them.  Carriages  and  automobiles  keep  clear 
of  them,  or  perhaps  it  would  be  more  exact  to  say  that  they 
dare  everything  and  are  training  themselves  to  run  risks. 
There  are  a  great  many  maimed  people  in  the  United  States, 
but,  after  all,  they  are  in  the  minority,  and  the  sport  con 
sists  of  keeping  in  the  majority,  which  has  developed  its 
arms,  legs,  lungs  and  level-headedness. 

I  see  no  more  of  the  children,  who  are  no  doubt  at  school, 
but  now  come  the  babies,  some  toddling  about  in  bright- 
colored  cloaks  in  front  of  stylish-looking  nurses,  and  others 


284  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

in  perambulators  provided  with  an  extraordinary  number 
of  springs  and  varnished  up  to  such  a  pitch  of  polish  as  to 
put  porcelain  into  the  shade.  In  a  double  perambulator 
-  just  as  great  a  rarity  in  Washington  as  in  Paris,  where 
good  society  is  not  prolific  —  are  a  pair  of  peaceful  twins 
dressed  with  exquisite  taste. 

At  10  o'clock,  after  the  babies  have  been  out  for  some 
time,  the  American  society  woman  appears  —  "incessu 
patuit  dea"  -the  greatest  ornament  and  the  highest 
expression  of  luxury  in  the  United  States.  I  see  her  move 
on,  sure  of  herself,  well  aware  of  her  power  to  please  and 
glad  of  it.  She  walks  with  her  light  and  queenly  step,  just 
as  she  will  make  her  entrance  this  evening  into  some  recep 
tion  room,  where  I  shall  no  doubt  meet  her  and  hear  her 
discuss  Paris,  in  French,  with  her  friends  and  rivals  as 
beautifully  dressed  and  fascinating  as  herself,  all  together 
in  a  group  like  a  bouquet  of  living  flowers.  Every  one 
wears  a  crown  of  light  hair,  as  luminous  as  a  halo.  Her 
complexion  is  always  fresh  and  without  a  trace  of  fatigue. 
She  is  glad  to  be  alive.  She  is  a  blossom  in  a  chalice  of 
silky  fabrics.  Carelessly  fastened  round  her  neck  is  a 
pearl  necklace  falling  on  her  corsage  like  a  ribbon. 

O  American  women,  elective  queens,  an  aristocracy  in 
a  democracy,  what  sums  of  money  your  husbands,  your 
fathers  and  the  whole  of  your  country  must  make 
to  go  on  supplying  you  with  dress!  It  is  some  con 
solation  to  think  that  a  large  part  of  the  money  will  be 
spent  in  Paris!  But,  rather  than  think,  let  us  keep  our 
eyes  open.  Flowers,  women,  children,  avenues  of  new  ver 
dure  brightened  by  new  houses,  all  combine  in  my  memory 
to  form  a  symbol :  a  new  springtime,  the  springtime  of  a 
nation.  That  being  so,  why  should  I  disquiet  myself? 
Was  there  ever  a  spring  without  a  summer?  Vitality  will 
overcome  the  dangers  that  experience  suggests  to  my  mind. 
Washington  will  triumph  over  all  difficulties  as  she  has 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF  A  NATION  285 

triumphed  over  them  already,  and  as  she  does  again  this 
spring  morning.     The  poet's  words  resound  in  my  ears: 

"  Et  les  fruits  passeront  les  promesses  des  fleurs." 
(And  the  fruit  shall  surpass  the  promise  of  the  flower.) 

2.   The  Federal  City  Plan 

Washington  owes  its  beauty  to  its  design  and  its  vigi 
lant  public  spirit  rather  than  to  its  climate,  which  is  by  no 
means  perfect,  or  to  its  position,  which  is  rather  ordinary. 
It  is  built  after  a  plan  often  spoiled  in  the  carrying  out,  but 
admirably  conceived.  General  Washington  and  Jefferson 
had  been  obliged  to  select  its  location  through  political  and 
not  through  aesthetic  reasons.  They  had  to  place  it  near 
the  point  of  junction  between  the  Northern  and  Southern 
states,  the  West  at  that  time  being  merely  a  possibility  of 
the  future.  A  great  city  was  not  wanted.  Philadelphia 
had  to  be  given  up  on  account  of  rioting,  and  the  seat  of 
what  had  become  a  nomadic  government  was  changed  no 
less  than  eight  times  in  twenty  years.  Safety  was  abso 
lutely  necessary.  After  all,  Versailles,  St.  Petersburg  and 
The  Hague,  not  to  mention  others,  were  political  capitals. 
The  architect  thus  had  to  create  everything,  but  he  had  no 
hindrance  to  encounter  from  Nature,  and  still  less  from  the 
past. 

Charles  U  Enfant 

Unfortunately  for  him,  and  fortunately  for  the  United 
States,  this  architect  was  more  of  an  artist  than  a 
courtier,  and  was  guided  more  by  conscience  than  by  in 
terest,  with  the  result  that  his  work  ended  better  than 
himself.  He  was  called  Pierre  Charles  L'Enfant,  and  was 
a  Frenchman,  an  engineer  officer  and  the  son,  I  believe,  of 
a  painter.  Like  every  one  else  in  Europe  at  the  time,  his 
ideas  were  inspired  by  the  vast  proportions  and  long-drawn- 


286  AMERICA  AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

out  perspectives  that  characterized  French  architecture  in 
the  reign  of  Louis  XIV,  and  he  was  more  or  less  imbued 
by  the  conceptions  of  our  landscape  architects,  such  as 
Le  Notre,  Mansard  and  Gabriel.  He  came  to  America 
with  Lafayette,  according  to  some,  while  others  say  he 
was  on  board  one  of  the  ships  in  Beaumarchais's  fleet.  He 
won  Washington's  esteem  by  his  fortifications  and  con 
structions,  which  brought  him  into  prominence  and  pro 
cured  him  the  post  of  chief  engineer,  with  the  rank  of 
major.  When  the  time  came,  he  claimed  the  honor  of 
drawing  up  the  plan  for  the  future  capital  of  America.  Jef 
ferson  himself  brought  back  ideas  for  cities,  and  even 
plans,  from  France.  L'Enfant's  proposal  was  especially 
well  received  because  it  was  conceived  on  a  very  large  and 
already  American  scale  and  combined  with  French  art.  It 
was  meant  for  the  capital  of  a  federation  such  as  had  never 
yet  existed  and  had  no  rival ;  for  the  capital  of  a  state 
"not  with  a  few  million  but  with  hundreds  of  millions  of 
inhabitants." 

An  attentive  examination  of  his  plan,  which  is  preserved 
in  the  archives  of  Congress  at  Washington,  shows  strikingly 
how  very  idealistic  was  its  conception  and  how  distinctly 
revolutionary  was  its  tendency.  L'Enfant  had  imagined 
what  was  really  a  new  city  for  a  new  epoch,  and  he  was  as 
much  inspired  by  the  faith  of  a  believer  as  by  the  prophetic 
genius  of  an  artist.  Washington  is  a  capital  in  which  all 
the  public  buildings  are  subordinated  to  the  houses  of 
Congress,  these  taking  the  place  of  a  Pantheon.  It  is  the 
capital  of  a  nation  that  has  liberated  itself,  and  it  has  been 
thus  defined  by  Rufus  Choate :  "We  built  a  Capitol  and 
not  a  temple ;  we  consult  the  Constitution  and  not  oracles." 
What  a  magnificent  insight  into  the  future  of  their  work 
had  these  men  who  planned  the  largest  capital  in  the  world 
for  a  weak  little  republic  —  so  weak,  in  fact,  that  its  con 
tinued  existence  was  by  no  means  sure !  I  feel  as  if  I  must 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF  A  NATION  287 

have  known  Major  L' Enfant  —  he  was  well  named.  The 
number  of  his  kind  in  France  is  legion.  Who  will  write 
the  history  of  the  enterprises  started  by  Frenchmen  in 
other  countries? 

Difficulties  commenced  for  L'Enfant  from  the  beginning. 
Jefferson  praised  the  plan  which  had  made  headway  in 
most  of  the  old  cities  of  the  United  States,  the  brutally 
simple  system  of  uniform  blocks,  with  the  city  cut  up  like 
a  checkerboard  by  streets  crossing  at  right  angles  without 
any  space  left  for  the  imagination  to  take  flight.  L'Enfant 
resisted  and  proposed  an  amendment  which  changed  every 
thing.  For  the  right  angle  he  substituted  the  acute  angle, 
or  at  least  he  introduced  into  his  plan  so  far  as  possible  the 
pure  symbolic  conception  of  the  starry  heaven,  the  city 
firmament  whose  application  is  seen  in  the  circles  of  Ver 
sailles  and  St.  Cloud,  whence  avenues  radiate  in  all  direc 
tions.  General  Washington  accepted  this  plan,  and  L'En 
fant  set  to  work  in  the  spring  of  1791,  with  what  intense 
interest  may  be  imagined.  To  have  an  absolutely  free 
surface,  as  unobstructed  as  the  sky,  on  which  to  build, 
must  have  been  a  remarkable  experience  for  a  European 
architect,  constantly  held  up  by  vested  rights  such  as  those 
of  the  landlord,  the  neighbors,  the  military  authorities, 
history  and  routine.  L'Enfant  could  take  all  the  land  he 
wanted.  The  Capitol,  built  on  a  hill  a  hundred  feet  above 
the  Potomac  and  the  Anacostia,  and  overlooking  the  junc 
tion  of  the  two  rivers,  was  the  central  feature  of  his  plan, 
as  the  city  was  to  be  the  center  of  the  Union ;  but  since  his 
day  the  city  has  extended  westward,  like  the  country.  The 
Capitol  was  a  star  of  the  first  magnitude  in  the  constella 
tion  conceived  by  L'Enfant.  The  magnificent  Pennsyl 
vania,  New  Jersey,  Maryland  and  Delaware  avenues 
started  from  the  Capitol.  The  other  "  stars,"  which  in 
course  of  time  have  become  the  most  attractive,  for  a  long 
time  existed  only  on  paper.  The  Government  Building, 


288  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

the  White  House,  also  surrounded  by  parks,  and  placed,  so 
to  speak,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Capitol,  was  not  far 
away.  It  formed  the  center  of  the  second  great  star,  from 
which  Connecticut  Avenue,  Vermont  Avenue,  Sixteenth 
Street,  etc.,  radiated;  and  this  star  was  connected  with 
the  first,  so  that  there  was  an  equally  open  perspective  from 
either,  by  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  just  as  it  is  now  with  the 
Public  Health  Museum,  the  Library  in  Mount  Vernon 
Square,  and  five  other  " stars" — Dupont,  Washington, 
Scott,  Thomas  and  Iowa.  The  two  great  government 
buildings  were  to  have  been  connected,  on  the  Potomac 
side,  by  two  magnificent  promenades  or  rectangular  parks 
with  majestic  vistas  of  lawns.  One  was  to  have  been  car 
ried  westward  from  the  Capitol  and  the  other  southward 
from  the  White  House,  so  as  to  meet  at  right  angles  and 
surround  the  monument  erected  by  a  grateful  nation  to 
George  Washington.  These  two  avenues  would  have 
formed  the  two  sides  of  a  triangle  having  Pennsylvania 
Avenue  as  its  hypothenuse,  but  they  were  never  carried  out. 
Pennsylvania  Avenue  was  massacred  by  unpatriotic  prop 
erty  owners,  but  it  was  a  considerable  achievement  to  save 
the  two  promenades — the  Executive  Grounds  and  the  Mall. 
Additions  were  even  made  to  them  by  reclaiming  ground 
from-  the  river  and  forming  what  is  now  the  Propagating 
Gardens.  An  architect  might  find  a  likeness  between  this 
plan  and  that  of  western  Paris  from  the  Tuileries  to  the 
Bois  de  Boulogne,  with  the  Barriere  de  TEtoile  —  the  Arc 
de  Triomphe  —  on  the  top ;  while  the  White  House  might 
be  imagined  as  standing  in  a  Place  de  la  Concorde  adorned 
with  flower  beds  and  bordered  with  gardens. 

The  plan  was  soon  finished  and  approved.  The  three 
commissioners,  Thomas  Johnson,  David  Stuart  and  Daniel 
Carroll,  who  were  appointed  to  receive  it,  merely  asked 
that  it  should  be  engraved,  so  that  prints  could  be  supplied 
to  members  of  Congress  before  the  end  of  the  year  1791  and 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF   A   NATION  289 

arrangements  made  without  delay  for  parceling  out  and 
selling  the  lots.  L'Enfant  refused  to  agree  to  this,  on  the 
ground  that  the  best  lots  would  be  bought  up  by  specu 
lators  and  that  it  would  become  impossible  or  ridiculous 
to  carry  out  his  plan.  The  committee  insisted  and  L'En- 
fant  resisted ;  they  quarreled,  and  he  was  finally  obliged 
to  resign  (March  i,  1792).  It  is  probable  that  he  made 
himself  unbearable,  like  every  man  who  places  his  work 
above  the  necessities  of  his  time  and  tries  to  protect  it 
against  contemporary  impatience.  In  any  case,  he  spent 
the  closing  years  of  his  life  in  disgrace.  There  is  something 
about  this  that  requires  clearing  up ;  for  while  Americans 
have  their  faults,  they  are  not  ungrateful,  and  the  fact  re 
mains  that  L'Enfant  complained  bitterly.  The  American 
architect,  Glen  Brown,  in  his  very  fine  history  of  the  Capitol, 
states  that  the  streets,  the  parks  and  the  sites  of  the  Capitol 
and  the  White  House  are  to-day  just  as  they  were  shown 
on  L'Enfant's  plan.  In  his  list  of  disbursements  he  includes 
the  following  item,  which  seems  to  suggest  that  L'Enfant 
was  very  poorly,  grudgingly  and  tardily  paid:  " Relief 
for  L'Enfant :  paid  to  Peter  Charles  L'Enfant  the  sum  of 
666  dollars  f ,  in  settlement  for  his  services  in  drawing  up 
the  plan  of  Washington,  plus  legal  interest  from  March  i, 
1792,  making  in  all  1,394  dollars  20  cents."  He  dates  this 
entry  May  i,  1810,  from  which  it  would  appear  that 
L'Enfant  had  to  wait  eighteen  years  for  payment.  "  He 
died  June  14,  1825,"  writes  Louis  Gillet,  the  architect,  "at 
the  house  of  some  kind  souls  who  had  given  him  shelter. 
When  his  room  was  entered,  the  plan  of  Washington  was 
found  still  clasped  in  his  icy  hand.  Neither  cross  nor 
tombstone  marks  his  last  resting  place." 

His  plan  was  taken  up  by  his  fellow  worker,  Andrew 
Ellicott.  After  such  a  beginning,  it  would  not  have  been 
surprising  if  little  had  been  left  of  the  original  plan,  but 
nevertheless  the  Americans  adhered  to  it  as  a  whole.  The 


2  QO  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

Capitol,  burned  by  the  English  in  1814,  was  rebuilt  and 
enlarged  on  the  same  site.  It  is  worthy  of  its  importance. 
It  is  sufficiently  well  fitted  up  to  contain  the  offices  of  some 
remarkable  public  services;  and  its  symbolical  satellite, 
rather  too  close  but  justly  celebrated,  is  the  Library  of 
Congress.  Many  other  buildings  have  been  erected  since 
then,  and  though  General  Washington's  national  univer 
sity  is  not  among  them,  there  are  at  least  institutions 
such  as  we  do  not  possess  in  Europe,1  for  want  of  money, 
one  of  them  being  the  Weather  Bureau,  which  in  itself  is 
a  speaking  synopsis  of  the  services  that  the  Federal  city  can 
render,  not  only  to  the  United  States,  but  to  the  world.  It 
is  an  innovation  of  incalculable  value  to  navigators,  agri 
culturists,  etc.  The  spirit  of  Franklin  shows  itself  in  the 
creation  of  the  Weather  Bureau.  It  is  even  better  than 
the  lightning  conductor ;  it  provides  a  means  of  keeping  in 
constant  touch  with  atmospheric  changes  and  preventing 
accidents  and  catastrophes.  I  have  known  the  French 
navy  to  make  free  use  of  and  express  the  highest  apprecia 
tion  of  the  information  sent  out  freely  every  day  by  this 
bureau.  I  could  say  as  much  for  the  Census  Bureau,  the 
Public  Health  Bureau,  and  the  Pan-American  palace,  etc. 
All  these  public  services,  all  more  or  less  unforeseen,  have 
found  their  proper  places  in  due  course  in  the  plan  of  the 
Capitol. 

The  city  of  Washington  has,  in  short,  thanks  to  the  fore 
sight,  amounting  to  genius,  of  its  founders,  saved  the  cost 
of  the  mistakes  for  which  other  capitals  are  trying,  at 
great  expense,  to  atone.  It  has  passed  through  periods  of 
profanation,  but  it  has  preserved  its  personality.  Paris 
has  incurred  the  same  dangers  and  is  still  incurring  them. 
This  is  less  evident  because  Paris  was  planned  in  a  way 
that  cannot  be  compared  to  any  other  city ;  but  how  those 
plans  are  disregarded !  While  we  find  cities  all  over  the 
world,  not  only  in  America  but  in  Germany,  Belgium  and 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF   A  NATION  29 1 

England,  coming  back  to  the  principle  of  large  open  spaces 
favored  by  our  fathers,  we  do  not,  it  is  true,  go  so  far  as 
to  narrow  the  Champs  Elysees,  but  we  allow  the  effect  of  the 
Arc  de  Triomphe  to  be  spoiled  by  hotels,  theaters  and  adver 
tisements.  Our  finest  houses  have  no  gardens,  and  scarcely 
even  courtyards.  They  are  like  tombs  hidden  behind  im 
posing  frontages. 

Public  Spirit 

All  this  is  very  discouraging  for  the  admirers  and  dis 
ciples  of  Paris.  If  we  go  on  in  this  way,  Paris  will  end  by 
losing  its  reputation,  not  as  a  fine  city,  but  as  an  agreeable 
one.  It  will  put  itself  on  the  list  of  cities  that  are  visited 
but  no  longer  lived  in.  There  are  plenty  of  people  in 
France  who  realize  this,  but  only  a  few  here  and  there  who 
raise  their  voices  against  it.  The  government  manages  us  in 
France.  In  America-  public  spirit  manages  the  government, 
as  we  have  seen  and  shall  see  again.  Bad  government  is  a 
punishment. 

3.   City  Planning 

Washington  has  become  a  triumphant  example  of  what, 
in  the  New  World,  is  commonly  called  city  planning,  or  the 
art  of  constructing  cities. 

City  planning  is  advancing  concurrently  with  progress  in 
domestic  architecture  and  in  everything  else.  Every  one 
realizes  that  he  cannot  interest  himself  in  his  own  house 
without  also  taking  interest  in  his  street  and  city.  Every 
thing  changes  with  disconcerting  speed.  Electric  tramways 
are  irresistible  factors  in  bringing  about  transformations. 
They  are  continually  suggesting  new  needs.  They  carry 
ideas  about,  even  more  than  passengers.  They  drag  the 
workman  from  drink,  and  they  save  both  citizens  and  cities. 
Progress  ceases  to  give  satisfaction,  and  perfection  is  aimed 
at.  People  are  no  longer  content  with  proper  sanitary 


2Q2  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

arrangements  in  their  houses,  baths  and  a  plentiful  supply 
of  water,  gas  and  electricity.  All  these  things  belong  to 
the  past.  Now  the  cry  is  for  fresh  air,  and  people  get  it ; 
for  the  country,  and  they  get  that  also,  as  far  as  it  can  be 
replaced  by  trees,  lawns  and  flowers. 


Blessings  of  Air  and  Sunshine 

The  modern  complement,  which  will  soon  be  in 
universal  demand,  of  the  house  and  city  consists  of 
the  blessings  of  air  and  light.  "Give  us  pure  air  and 
pure  food,  both  for  our  minds  and  bodies,"  will  be  what 
voters,  women  as  well  as  men,  will  require  from  city 
and  national  representatives  throughout  the  country. 
There  can  be  no  mistaking  the  fact  that  demands,  which 
used  to  originate  more  or  less  from  a  sense  of  justice 
or  charity,  are  now  the  outcome  of  a  direct  interest.  The 
benefit  and  the  necessity  of  relaxation  have  been  discovered, 
and  rest,  leisure,  cheerfulness,  health  and  beauty  appear 
in  their  true  light  as  valuable  producing  factors.  The  reli 
gion  of  beauty  is  taking  its  place  in  American  habits  of 
thought.  People  who  are  indifferent  to  Ruskin's  ideas,  or 
skeptical  about  them,  are  plentiful  in  America,  but  he  has 
no  opponents.  It  is  generally  admitted  that  "beauty 
pays,  and  that  beauty  in  a  city  creates  prosperity  and  social 
harmony."  "The  commercial  value  of  beauty  has  been 
misunderstood,"  and  now  we  find  modern  cities  emulating 
one  another  in  plans  for  improvement  and  extensions,  open 
spaces,  playgrounds  and  promenades.  I  can  hardly  be 
lieve  my  eyes.  As  a  Frenchman,  the  son  and  grandson 
of  hard-working  Frenchmen,  I  can  remember  the  time  when 
the  word  "promenade"  used  to  imply  a  suspicion  of  lazi 
ness  and  loss  of  time.  Promenading  was  looked  at 
askance.  "  Je  n'ai  pas  le  temps  de  me  promener"  (I  have 
no  time  to  take  walks)  and  "qu'il  aille  se  promener"  (I  wish 


THE    SPRINGTIME   OF   A  NATION  293 

he  would  go  and  take  a  walk !)  are  proverbial  expressions  of 
impatience.  The  walk  we  were  made  to  take  every  Thurs 
day,  when  I  was  at  college,  was  looked  upon  as  an  infliction. 
M.  Challemel-Lacour,  who  was  the  French  ambassador  in 
London  when  I  was  on  the  staff  of  the  embassy  thirty  years 
ago,  and  whose  style  of  speech  always  impressed  me,  re 
marked  one  day  when  I  had  been  out  with  some  English 
friends :  "  When  I  was  your  age,  I  had  never  been  for  a  walk." 
I  did  not  laugh  at  this  thrust,  knowing  as  I  did  that  it  was 
the  expression  of  a  past  worthy  of  infinite  respect  —  the 
intense  effort  made  by  France,  after  every  crisis,  to  make 
up  by  hard  work  for  the  mistakes  of  its  governments. 

It  has  taken  forty-three  years  of  peace  to  bring  us  back  to 
normal  conditions  of  life.  After  securing  their  independ 
ence  the  Americans,  unlike  the  peoples  of  central  Europe, 
had  no  experience  of  real  invasions  or  of  the  hard  times 
which  follow  them.  Their  three  wars  of  modern  times 
were  not  wars  at  all,  compared  with  ours.  They  have  been 
able  to  give  themselves  up  unreservedly  to  the  joy  of  plan 
ning  their  cities  so  as  to  live  comfortably  in  them,  and  of 
building  up  an  attractive  young  country  calculated  to 
inspire  its  inhabitants  with  attachment  for  it.  Let  them 
realize,  and  not  forget,  that  their  success  in  this  task  is 
due  to  peace.  Through  this  cause,  also,  sports  and  outdoor 
games  have  developed,  among  them  as  among  the  English, 
the  taste  and  need  for  outdoor  life,  to  the  great  advantage 
of  their  moral  and  physical  welfare. 

These  various  causes,  and  particularly  the  advance  in 
public  spirit,  help  to  explain  the  progress  of  municipal  life, 
which  is  the  basis  of  national  progress  in  the  United  States. 
It  also  supplies  an  explanation  of  many  private  organiza 
tions  which  exercise  a  tutelary  control  over  the  public 
departments.  These  organizations  may  strike  us  as  very 
daring  and  paradoxical,  but  they  have  nevertheless  proved 
their  usefulness. 


2Q4  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

The  most  beautiful  cities  in  the  world,  including  Paris, 
lose  their  charm  if  they  are  not  kept  clean.  The  construc 
tion  of  a  city  is  one  thing ;  its  cleanliness  is  another.  Ameri 
cans  start  frankly  with  the  proposition  that  cleanliness  is 
not  to  be  expected  from  grown-up  people  in  general,  and 
they  have  hit  upon  the  idea  of  utilizing  the  spirit  of  emula 
tion  among  children,  by  putting  them  in  the  forefront  of  a 
crusade  against  dirt.  In  1899  the  number  of  children's 
leagues  of  this  kind  was  47,  and  in  two  years  this  number 
was  doubled. 

Religion  of  Beauty 

The  movement  naturally  follows  its  course  from  the 
street  to  instruction  and  education.  Illustrated  books  are 
published  and  distributed  in  the  schools.  Special  news 
papers,  lectures  with  dissolving  views,  showing  excursions  to 
beautiful  places,  even  as  far  away  as  Paris,  are  organized, 
with  an  accompaniment  of  songs,  banners,  badges  and 
everything  that  can  arouse  enthusiasm  among  children. 
A  sanitary  commission  and  a  vigilance  committee  teach 
children  not  to  soil  the  streets  and  to  keep  the  houses  and 
apartments  clean.  Apostles  of  material  and  moral  clean 
liness  devote  their  lives  to  the  cause,  which  is  being  propa 
gated  in  France  by  the  works  of  Charles  Gide  and  G. 
Benoit-Levy.  The  movement  has  already  borne  fruit; 
independently  of  juvenile  crime,  which  has  decreased  since 
children's  courts  were  instituted,  we  see  municipal  councils 
start  what  is  called  a  "  cleaning  day."  Americans,  who 
used  to  spit  freely,  have  dropped  the  habit.  When  they 
travel  in  Europe,  they  avoid  badly  kept  towns  and  evil- 
smelling  hotels,  and  this  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  many  of 
them  prefer  Switzerland  and  Germany  to  France  and  Italy. 
Let  us  take  warning.  It  is  not  enough  to  shout  "vive  la 
France";  we  must  also  keep  our  homeland  swept  and 
garnished.  The  American  children  I  have  seen  at  work 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF   A  NATION  295 

submit  to  discipline  and  pull  together  admirably.  The 
grown-ups,  who  did  not  manage  to  set  them  a  good  example, 
have  none  the  less  made  up  their  minds  to  follow  in  their 
footsteps,  and  the  result  is  that  we  see  all  sorts  of  irresis 
tibly  convincing  demonstrations  —  mass  meetings  of  40,000 
children,  boys  and  girls,  marching  through  the  streets  and 
displaying  such  placards  as  "We  want  clean  streets"  and 
1  i  We  want  a  well-kept  ci ty . "  At  school,  the  pupils  enter  into 
pledges,  some  of  which  I  should  like  to  quote  in  full.  One 
is  :  "  I  promise  never  to  destroy  a  tree,  a  shrub  or  a  bird."1 
As  will  readily  be  supposed,  American  women  are  by  no 
means  hostile  to  this  education  of  childhood.  Here  again, 
and  with  especial  clearness,  they  realize  that  their  own  future 
is  involved,  inasmuch  as  the  education  of  fathers,  husbands 
and  brothers  brings  domestic  happiness  with  it.  They 
themselves  need  organization,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  they 
do  not  fail  in  this  respect.  In  addition  to  all  the  leagues 
for  municipal  improvement  which  I  have  mentioned  — 

1  See  the  interesting  illustrated  works  by  G.  Benoit-Levy  on  city-plan- 
ning  questions,  such  as  "La  Ville  Modele,"  "  Garden  City,"  "  Banlieues- 
Jardins  et  Villages- Jardins,"  "  Cites- Jardins  d'Amerique,"  "  Le  Roman  des 
Cites-Jardins,"  "L'Enfant  des  Cites- Jardins,"  "La  Ville  et  son  Image" 
and  "La  Formation  de  la  Race."  Paris,  167  Rue  Montmartre:  Cites- 
Jardins  de  France  publications.  See  also  "  La  Science  du  Bonheur,"  by 
Jean  Finot,  and  Montenac's  works  on  "  L'Esthetique  Urbaine  et  Villageoise," 
"La  Serie  Verte,"  "  Sur  la  Pelouse,"  "L'Eau,"  "L'Arbre"  and  "Ouvrons 
les  Yeux."  Among  works  in  English,  see  "To-Morrow,"  by  E.  Howard, 
"  The  City-Garden  Bible"  and  "  Town  Planning  in  Practice,"  by  R.  Unwin 
(a  masterly  illustrated  book)  and  the  works  of  Mrs.  C.  W.  Earle,  that 
generous  pioneer  to  whom  I  feel  a  constant  gratitude  that  I  shall  never  be 
able  to  acknowledge  sufficiently.  In  the  United  States  see  also  various  ex 
cellent  illustrated  reviews,  such  as  The  American  City,  Good  Health,  Park  and 
Cemetery  and  The  Municipal  Journal,  not  forgetting  the  standard  illustrated 
works  by  Charles  Mulford  Robinson.  Those  fine  illustrated  books  by  an 
English  pioneer,  W.  Robinson  —  "The  English  Flower  Garden,"  "The 
Garden  Beautiful,"  "The  Vegetable  Garden,"  "The  Wild  Garden"  and 
"  God's  Acre  Beautiful,  or  the  Cemetery  of  the  Future." 

See  also  the  recently  published  books  (splendidly  illustrated  with  color 
photographs)  by  Willy  Langen,  head  of  the  Berlin  Botanical  Garden,  and 
Otto  Stahn,  "  The  Formation  of  Gardens,"  etc. 


296  AMERICA  AND  tfER  PROBLEMS 

and  I  ought  to  have  included  the  American  Civic  Associa 
tion,  the  Emerson  Union  for  Ideal  Culture,  and  such  bene 
factors  as  Pierpont  Morgan,  Harriman  and  many  others 
who  have  enriched  their  country  with  parks,  forests  and 
open  spaces  —  there  are  more  than  700  associations  of 
women  for  city  beautifying  all  over  the  country.  If  the 
municipal  government  objects,  they  get  another  elected  in 
stead.  They  proceed  in  the  same  way  for  food  inspection 
and  education.  They  provide  for  kindergartens  and  see 
that  workshops  and  public  places  are  decorated  with  flowers. 
They  handle  the  broom  themselves,  as  do  the  children,  and 
tell  them  to  show  their  parents  how  to  use  this  implement. 
They  remind  the  tradesmen  that  a  well-kept  town  means 
money  in  its  inhabitants'  pockets. 

It  is,  therefore,  not  surprising  to  find  traces  of  this  healthy 
national  movement  in  the  Federal  capital ;  but,  having  dis 
covered  the  causes,  I  must  admit  that  I  am  filled  with 
wonder  at  the  sight  of  the  effects,  and  by  the  discovery  that 
every  one  who  admires  these  effects  is  free  to  profit  by  them. 

I  should  never  finish  if  I  went  on  enumerating  all  the 
signs  of  the  really  impressive  American  effort  to  make 
Washington  what  L'Enfant  intended  it  to  be,  and  what  it 
deserves  to  be.  I  must  nevertheless  say  a  word  about  the 
park  I  visited,  the  pilgrimage  to  Mount  Vernon  (which 
ought  to  be  made  by  every  French  traveler  in  the  States 
after  Lafayette),  the  art  of  landscape  gardening  for  the 
people,  and  finally  the  White  House,  so  rich  in  personal 
recollections  for  me  and  in  hope  for  the  world's  peace. 

4.   Washington's  Park 

Rock  Creek  Park  is  a  bit  of  Nature  preserved  for  man. 
It  is  one  of  those  large  expanses  of  virgin  ground  that  the 
Americans  used  to  devastate  mercilessly  but  are  now  treat 
ing  with  respect  and  beginning  to  preserve.  "  What  I  see, " 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF  A  NATION  2Q7 

wrote  Tocqueville  on  May  20,  1831,  in  his  notes  on  his 
journey  to  New  York,  "rouses  no  enthusiasm  in  me,  be 
cause  more  is  due  to  the  nature  of  things  than  to  human 
effort."  Rock  Creek  Park,  however,  redeems  the  national 
reputation.  A  very  wide  and  well-kept  road  winds  its  way, 
up  hill  and  down  dale,  past  wooded  cliffs  and  majestic  rocks. 
A  mountain  torrent,  the  Rock  Creek,  is  allowed  to  cross  and 
recross  the  road,  and  automobiles  and  horses  must  ford  its 
pellucid  waters.  There  could  be  no  better  appeal  to  the 
childish  imagination  than  cycling,  or  rather  walking, 
through  this  wild  solitude  near  the  gates  of  a  great  city,  and 
no  better  rest  cure  for  the  brain  worker.  It  is  a  great 
resource  for  town  dwellers,  who  are  thus  able  to  go  back  — 
in  the  most  comfortable  way,  too  —  to  the  simple  life ;  it  is 
a  splendid  cure  for  nervous  complaints,  and  a  fine  stimulus  to 
life  and  action. 

Trees  and  Birds 

It  is  very  sweet,  too,  for  the  traveler  from  abroad 
to  find  himself  in  the  company  of  the  trees  he  knows, 
in  the  familiar  surroundings  of  things  that  do  not 
change,  of  human  things  that  are  more  or  less  alike 
in  all  countries,  just  as  the  sky  is  the  same  everywhere. 
There  is  an  endless  variety  of  maple  trees  here,  ranging 
from  the  sycamore  maple  to  the  kind  that  provides  a  sirupy 
substitute  for  honey.  Here  is  a  giant  ash  with  buds  just 
opening;  here  are  various  kinds  of  oaks,  all  solemn  and 
slow  to  respond  to  spring,  just  as  they  are  in  our  own  coun 
try;  here  are  the  elm,  the  ash  and  the  lithe,  wiry  acacia 
growing  on  the  edge  of  the  ditches,  the  witch  elm  that 
looks  like  the  beech,  the  white  birch  quivering  in  the  morn 
ing  breeze,  the  aspen,  the  silver  willow  and  the  big  walnut 
tree  growing  near  his  brother  the  chestnut  tree,  just  as  he 
does  in  France.  At  their  feet  are  the  same  arborescent 
ferns ;  among  the  moss  are  the  same  forest  flowers  —  the 


298  AMERICA  AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

primrose,  the  periwinkle,  the  violet,  the  narcissus,  the  lily 
of  the  valley,  the  wild  hyacinth,  the  asphodel,  and,  right 
on  the  edge  of  the  wood,  the  anemone,  the  buttercup,  the 
dandelion  and  the  daisy.  In  front  of  a  velvety  curtain  of 
fir  trees  I  see  larches,  blue  cedars  and  black  Canadian 
pines.  On  the  slope  of  a  hillock,  still  covered  with  the 
dead  leaves  of  autumn,  wave  the  blossoming  branches  of 
leafless  trees  and  shrubs :  the  laburnum,  the  Judas  tree,  a 
few  lilac  trees,  pear  trees,  wild  apple  trees,  cherry  trees 
and  peach  trees  in  company  with  the  barberry  and  all 
sorts  of  hawthorns.  Along  the  roads,  where  they  were  no 
doubt  purposely  placed,  a  few  magnolias,  forsythias  with 
their  brilliant  yellows,  vivacious  azaleas,  wild  laurels, 
mahonias  and  rose  trees  spring  up  here  and  there  as  if 
through  some  caprice  of  Nature,  not  to  mention  the  syringa 
with  its  white  bouquets  and  the  spirea  with  its  snowballs. 
Among  the  rocks,  the  glistening  holly  points  its  spikes  at 
the  sun.  The  curtains  of  ivy  and  even  the  dark  foliage  of 
the  box  tree  seem  to  reflect  light.  Further  on  is  a  for 
ester's  house,  almost  hidden  under  glycina,  honeysuckle, 
jasmine  already  in  flower,  vines  with  their  red,  trumpet- 
shaped  blossoms  and  Japanese  wisteria.  But  the  queen 
of  these  American  woods  is  the  leafless  flower  of  the  dog 
wood  —  white,  mauve  or  pink  —  whose  petals,  spread  out 
like  wings,  suggest  so  many  swarms  of  butterflies.  The 
cornel  tree,  which  I  am  told  is  the  French  dogwood,  does 
not  hold  pride  of  place  with  us ;  but  here  every  wood  and 
park  has  its  dogwood.  This  shrub,  covered  with  flowers 
that  look  as  if  they  were  flying,  simply  enchants  the  eye. 
These  delightful  abodes  of  solitude  are  inhabited  by 
swarms  of  tame  or  only  half -wild  creatures.  Buffaloes, 
deer  and  squirrels  live  at  peace  with  peacocks,  pigeons, 
swans  and  a  multitude  of  song  birds.  In  France  we  exter 
minate  our  birds,  and  our  "Tartarins"  practice  their 
shooting  on  little  warblers.  The  same  kind  of  thing,  and 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF  A  NATION  299 

even  worse,  was  done  here  for  a  long  time,  but  a  reaction 
has  set  in  against  such  barbarity.  Leagues  for  the  protec 
tion  of  birds  have  been  started;  private  initiative  (as 
in  the  case  of  Mrs.  Sage  at  Marsh  Island,  for  instance) 
has  helped  to  effect  reform ;  parks  have  been  set  aside  by 
Congress,  states  and  towns ;  and  birds,  like  trees  and 
flowers,  have  regained  their  title  to  existence.  They  cer 
tainly  take  full  advantage  of  it.  The  American  landscape 
gains  inestimably  by  the  qualities  of  motion,  life,  color 
and  music  imparted  to  it  by  birds,  without  counting  their 
usefulness  in  an  almost  tropical  country,  where  insects  are 
man's  enemies.  The  blackbird  seems  to  be  especially 
popular  here.  His  feathers  are  surprisingly  fine.  He  is 
always  smart.  In  the  St.  Louis  district  he  shines  as  if  he 
were  varnished,  and  his  wardrobe  is  of  the  richest  kind. 
The  white  variety  is  not  to  be  found,  but  I  have  seen  some 
blackbirds  with  blue  heads,  others  with  yellow  heads,  with 
white  and  red  shoulders,  and  with  red  wings.  They  as 
tonish  one  by  shooting  like  arrows  of  light  through  the 
woods,  accompanying  their  flight  by  outbursts  of  song,  with 
even  greater  variety  than  the  morning  hues  of  the  forest. 
This  early  serenade  is  taken  up  by  an  innumerable  or 
chestra  and  is  the  prelude  to  a  concert  of  vocal  flourishes, 
trills  and  runs,  to  which  a  note  of  irony  is  added  by  the 
voice  of  the  magpie,  the  oriole  and  the  mocking  bird.  The 
big  redbreast  or  robin  answers  the  chaffinch  —  golden 
brown,  lapis-lazuli  blue  or  scarlet.  The  Kentucky  car 
dinal  flits  by,  resplendent  in  dazzling  color.  The  humming 
bird  with  red  or  vermilion  back  is  often  seen,  and  so  are  the 
ruby- tin  ted  tanager  and  the  bluebird. 

The  Bluebird  and  the  Eagle 

Here  the  bluebird  is  not  a  mere  creature  of  the  imagi 
nation.     It  is  to  be  found  all  over  the  United  States,  and 


300  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

might  be  used  as  a  symbol  by  some  society  with  an  ideal. 
I  have  always  been  sorry  that  the  United  States  chose  the 
eagle  as  their  symbol.  They  had  the  stars  that  spangle 
their  banner,  and  they  had  the  oak.  The  case  called  for 
something  new.  The  Gauls,  who  were  warlike  enough  for 
any  one,  selected  the  lark,  and  the  Roman  eagle  was  cast 
down  by  the  barbarians.  The  eagle  is  dying  out,  and  ought 
to  die  out,  like  the  brigand  in  civilized  nature.  It  is  nothing 
but  an  anachronism  in  the  armorial  bearings  of  a  democracy. 
I  admit  that  it  is  a  reminder  of  the  defeat  inflicted  on  the 
British  lion,  but  it  is  none  the  less  much  more  emblematical 
of  oppression  than  independence  and  is  an  out-of-date 
symbol.  As  Michelet  said:  "The  eagle  is  dethroned," 
and  he  ought  to  be  still  more  so  in  the  United  States  than 
elsewhere.  The  cultivation  of  delight  in  existence,  of 
which  I  see  signs  everywhere  in  the  United  States,  is  in 
compatible  with  the  lust  for  destruction.  I  am  grateful 
to  American  public  spirit,  because  it  saved  the  bluebird 
for  us. 


5.   The  Art  of  Gardening.    Internationalized  and 
Democratized 

I  was  stopped  by  some  friendly  gardens  on  my  way  back 
from  the  park.  Progress  in  the  art  of  gardening  is  a  fairly 
correct  gauge  of  the  progress  in  civilization,  and  this  form 
of  progress  has  been  as  rapid  as  any  other  in  the  United 
States.  Gardening  is  preeminently  one  of  the  arts  of 
peace.  In  France  it  has  suffered  from  the  storms  that 
have  assailed  us  in  the  course  of  our  history,  and  the  women 
of  the  last  generation  had  to  plant  flowers  oftener  in  ceme 
teries  than  in  gardens ;  but  the  art  is  undergoing  a  general 
revival,  and  every  one  wants  to  grow  flowers.  In  the  United 
States  the  same  causes  produce  the  same  effects,  and  horti- 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF   A  NATION  30 1 

culture  has  become  democratic.  Herein  is  a  great  change. 
We  still  see  the  gardens  that  were  laid  out  for  kings  and 
princes  and  for  the  patrons  of  art  who  imitated  and  out 
stripped  them.  Seeing  things  as  they  do,  on  a  large  scale, 
Americans  could  not  help  reverting  to  the  France  of  Louis 
XIV's  period.  Never  have  the  parks  at  Fontainebleau, 
Vaux,  Compiegne,  St.  Cloud  and  Chantilly,  and  many 
others,  been  so  much  in  favor  as  now  in  America.  The  new 
generations  are  fervent  admirers  of  "the  gardens  of  intel 
ligence/'  the  " poet's  garden"  and  the  " secret  garden"  ;  but 
they  are  not  satisfied  with  admiring ;  they  want  a  new  kind 
of  garden  —  a  garden  for  themselves  and  for  everybody. 
The  garden  that  Voltaire  advised  Candide  to  cultivate  at  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century  (it  has  since  been  called  the 
"  rectory  garden,"  and  even  the  humblest  among  us  long 
for  one)  has  become  a  reality  in  the  United  States  —  a 
reality  enriched,  if  not  enlarged,  by  infinite  inheritance 
from  the  past  and  the  discoveries  of  indefatigable  florists 
in  every  country,  especially  Japan.  It  has  become  the  op 
posite  of  the  costly  garden,  walled  in  on  all  sides  and  arous 
ing  no  feeling  except  that  of  inequality  in  the  passer-by, 
and  implying  that  all  is  for  one,  and  nothing  for  the  rest. 
Here  it  is  a  pleasure  to  the  public  eye.  It  decorates  streets, 
roads  and  the  landscape  in  general.  Instead  of  envy,  it 
suggests  emulation  and  the  desire  to  build  up  a  home,  a 
family  and  a  country.  The  garden  is  a  pleasant  smile, 
an  encouragement  to  the  living,  and  a  color  symphony  that 
is  just  as  good  for  the  education  of  people  as  a  musical 
symphony.  The  art  of  gardening  in  the  United  States  has 
become  not  only  democratic  but  international.  Traces  of 
English,  German  (Kindergarten),  French  and  other  forms 
of  progress  are  to  be  found  in  the  gardens  of  the  United 
States.  Here  the  garden  has  become  a  need,  because  it 
forms  part  of  a  system  of  architecture  in  process  of 
creation. 


302  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Cheap  Horticulture 

A  friend  of  mine  summed  up  the  situation  thus :  "  A  few 
less  wreaths  for  the  dead  and  a  few  more  flowers  for  the 
living."  But  gardening  must  be  made  cheap  if  it  is  to  be 
put  within  reach  of  the  masses.  The  modern  formula  is : 
"More  pleasure  for  less  trouble  and  less  cost."  The  garden 
must  be  simplified.  "We  want  a  home  and  not  a  mu 
seum."  This  end  has  been  attained  by  reducing  the  use  of 
annuals,  such  as  the  geranium,  and  replacing  them  by  vig 
orous  herbaceous  plants  properly  grouped  together.  In 
this  way  the  English  have  produced  masterpieces  of  sim 
plicity  to  go  with  a  brick  wall  or  border  a  walk.  The 
Americans  are  in  no  way  behindhand.  They  either  divide 
their  garden  into  three  parts,  so  that  each  one  is  in  flower 
at  a  different  season,  or  arrange  their  plants  so  that  fresh 
flowers  automatically  take  the  place  of  those  that  are  over. 
In  this  way  their  spring  gardens  last,  according  to  latitude 
and  climate,  from  the  beginning  of  May  to  the  end  of  June, 
and  then  change  into  summer  and  autumn  gardens.  Every 
one  turns  out  to  see  the  various  blossoms  when  they  are 
at  their  best.  There  is  lilac  Sunday,  rhododendron  and 
azalea  Sunday,  and  a  Sunday  for  roses,  dahlias  and  chrysan 
themums.  These  displays  of  flowers,  however,  are  a 
superfluous  luxury,  according  to  those  who  cultivate  them. 
The  most  important  part  of  the  garden  consists  of  the  grass 
and  leaves,  and  not  of  the  flowers.  The  object  of  the 
flower  is  to  please  and  amuse  the  eye,  while  verdure  rests 
it.  Let  us  therefore,  they  say,  observe  a  due  sense  of 
proportion.  Every  well-designed  American  garden  com 
prises  a  turfed  center,  a  grass  walk  and  clumps  of  shrubs 
and  trees  with  some  kind  of  building  in  the  background. 
Fruit  trees  are  freely  used  for  these  clumps  of  verdure, 
notably  the  cherry  tree  or  double-flowered  malus  —  quite 
a  burning  bush,  a  floral  expression  of  enthusiasm,  giving 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF   A   NATION  303 

mankind  beauty  instead  of  fruit.  Non-flowering  shrubs 
are  also  appreciated,  and  their  variety  of  foliage,  hitherto 
left  too  much  to  the  decoration  of  large  parks,  produces 
astonishing  results.  They  are  more  like  bouquets  of  leaves 
than  shrubs,  and  they  are  bouquets  that  change  color  with 
the  seasons.  Some  Japanese  maples  are  green  in  the  spring 
and  red  in  autumn  or  inversely.  Others  are  coppery, 
bronzed  or  silvered,  or  show  all  sorts  of  tints.  Much  in 
genuity  and  foresight  are  exhibited  in  imparting  variety 
to  all  these  settings.  It  is  quite  a  science  to  design  an 
avenue.  In  Europe  we  say  "a  landscape  is  a  state  of 
mind/'  but  here  the  answer  would  be  that  a  cheerful  land 
scape  can  change  the  color  of  our  thoughts,  and  gardens 
are  a  means  to  this  end.  I  experience  a  sensation  of  calm 
serenity,  as  if  I  were  reconciled  to  life,  when  I  see  before 
me  a  stretch  of  closely  mown,  green  turf  bordered  by  plants 
bedded  up  in  lines,  one  above  the  other.  Many-colored 
irises  are  in  front,  with  the  long-stalked  tulips,  and  the 
narcissi  here  and  there  lifting  their  starry  white  heads. 
Leaning  over  them  are  the  branches  of  lilac  bending  un 
der  their  weight  of  blossom,  or  the  tree-like  peony,  or 
the  poetical  hawthorn.  Standing  still  higher  than  these 
medium-sized  shrubs  are  the  Judas  tree,  the  laburnum  and 
the  tamarind. 

We  must  beware  of  fostering  our  European  delusion  that 
all  our  artists  have  to  do  is  to  produce  if  they  want  buyers 
in  the  United  States.  A  change  is  going  on.  Natural 
taste  is  in  process  of  formation  in  America,  while  its  purity 
is  endangered  among  us  by  official  patronage  and  by  dis 
regard  of  order  and  cleanliness.  A  nation  that  seeks  for 
beauty,  and  always  finds  a  place  for  it  in  Nature,  in  cities 
and  in  houses,  will  soon  stop  living  on  borrowed  capital. 
It  will  produce  its  own  artists.  It  has  already  had  a 
Whistler,  a  Sargent;  I  know  some  others,  and  one  of 
these  days  they  will  begin  to  export ! 


304  AMERICA  AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

6.   Mount  Vernon  and  the  White  House 

I  have  lingered  over  the  gardens  of  Washington,  in 
addition  to  having  already  dealt  with  many  other  American 
cities,  although  I  ought  to  say  something  about  Baltimore 
and  Pittsburgh  parks,  the  country  around  New  York,  Boston, 
Lake  Mohonk,  Newport,  New  Hampshire,  and  the  state  of 
Vermont.  The  reason  is  that  Washington  sums  up  all  the  rest. 
What  I  might  have  taken  elsewhere  for  an  exceptional  and 
privileged  condition  is  common  to  the  whole  country,  and  is 
in  itself  an  explanation  of  that  country.  Every  one  of  these 
millions  of  gardens  constitutes  the  framework,  as  it  were, 
of  a  home  and  a  family.  Society  in  America  is  quite  a  new 
institution  made  up  of  emigrants  unknown  to  one  another, 
and  these  elements  have  become  fused  together  by  a  com 
mon  desire  for  comfort.  A  middle  class  has  been  created 
in  the  United  States.  Side  by  side  with  very  rich  houses, 
which  help  to  educate  the  public  taste,  an  immense  number 
of  small  American  families,  starting  from  nothing,  have 
established  themselves  and,  having  taken  root,  are  already 
acting  as  a  stimulus  to  the  working  class.  American  so 
ciety,  in  spite  of  the  boundless  luxury  of  its  aristocracy, 
thus  remains  democratic,  and  its  organization  is  based  on 
the  principle  of  adhering  to  the  traditions  that  have  served 
it  so  well,  —  those  of  its  founders. 

Simple  Life 

These  traditions  have  been  kept  alive  at  Mount  Vernon, 
which  I  will  refrain  from  describing  after  so  many  others 
have  undertaken  the  task.  Mount  Vernon  is  more  than  a 
home;  it  is  the  cradle  of  all  American  homes.  It  is  a 
glorification  of  the  struggle  for  independence,  and  a  per 
manent  exhibition  of  the  American  sense  of  duty,  as  well 
as  a  tribute  to  the  simple,  family  life.  When  going  through 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF  A  NATION  305 

its  rooms,  kept  up  with  pious  care  by  an  association  of 
American  women,  the  thought  of  General  Washington  is  in 
separable  from  that  of  his  wife,  Martha  Washington.  They 
are  buried  in  the  same  tomb.  Trees  have  been  planted  in 
the  garden  in  memory  of  the  friends  who  gathered  round 
this  home.  Lafayette's  magnolia  still  stands  on  a  lawn, 
in  the  society  of  birds  and  flowers.  Millions  of  Americans 
come  here  every  year.  It  is  their  way  of  making  a  pilgrim 
age,  and  they  return  home  full  of  the  spirit  that  has  made 
them  what  they  are.  This  spirit  is  still  to  be  found  at  the 
White  House.  It  has  been  transmitted  from  Washington 
and  Jefferson  to  other  great  Presidents,  such  as  Madison, 
Monroe,  Lincoln,  Grant,  Cleveland  and  McKinley,  and  it 
would  be  a  public  scandal  if  their  successors  failed  to  live 
up  to  them.  The  President,  elected  by  the  whole  people 
to  succeed  such  men,  is  expected  to  be  worthy  of  the  country 
and  its  past.  But  the  country  is  simple,  just  as  its  past 
has  been.  There  is  a  great  and  inevitable  difference  be 
tween  entering  the  palace  of  the  President  of  the  French 
Republic  at  the  Ely  see  and  paying  a  visit  to  the  White 
House  —  the  difference  between  a  Napoleonic  palace  and  a 
house,  or  between  a  public  building  and  a  home.  The 
White  House  is  Mount  Vernon  on  a  larger  scale. 

A  City  of  Gratitude 

The  city  of  Washington  has  remained,  and  will  long  re 
main,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  a  city  of  gratitude.  Everything 
contributes  to  this  impression.  Lafayette  Square,  with 
its  two  fine  monuments  to  Lafayette  and  Rochambeau, 
facing  the  White  House  and  keeping  it  company,  is  the 
most  touching  tribute  a  nation  could  render  to  its  liberators. 
Many  American  children  used  to  believe  that  Lafayette 
and  Washington  were  twins,  because  they  heard  the  two 
names  so  constantly  associated.  This  enthusiastic  grati- 


306  AMERICA  AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

tude  has  something  juvenile  about  it,  like  the  impulsiveness 
of  a  happy  child. 

My  Visits  to  the  White  House 

I  have  always  been  cordially  received  at  the  White 
House,  both  as  a  visitor  and  as  a  friend,  in  1902, 1907,  1911 
and  1912.  There  I  have  met  two  very  different  Presidents, 
who  have  since  become  bitter  opponents,  Mr.  Roosevelt 
and  Mr.  Taft.  They  are  alike  in  one  respect,  however,  - 
simplicity  and  attachment  to  family  life.  Here  I  may 
remark,  in  parenthesis,  that  even  in  France  I  have  never 
seen  more  united  families  than  in  America.  I  hope  Mr. 
Roosevelt  and  Mr.  Taft  will  forgive  me  if  I  say  that,  in  spite 
of  their  political  battles,  their  reception  of  me  impressed 
me  with  their  great  kindness  and  readiness  to  help.  I 
might  go  still  further  and  say  that,  if  President  Roosevelt 
had  not  killed  so  many  lions,  bears,  elephants  and  rhinocer 
oses,  he  would  be  equaled  only  by  Rudyard  Kipling  in  his  love 
for  animals,  and  especially  for  birds,  whose  ways  and  song 
he  knows  very  well.  As  every  one  will  readily  understand, 
I  had  to  be  strictly  neutral  in  the  open  warfare  that  raged 
between  the  two  candidates  during  my  last  journey.  This 
did  not  prevent  me  from  regretting  that  the  war  was  waged 
with  so  much  energy,  but  an  American  in  whom  I  have 
confidence  reassured  me  by  telling  me  that,  once  the  elec 
tion  over,  no  further  sign  of  it  would  be  seen;  that  the 
temporary  disturbance  in  the  country  would  prove  to  be  a 
good  thing,  because  it  occupied  public  attention  and  com 
pelled  every  citizen,-  man,  woman  and  child,  to  take  an 
interest  in  such  an  essential  function  of  the  national  exist 
ence.  We  certainly,  I  replied,  take  it  much  more  quietly 
in  France,  where  the  perfect  machinery  of  our  Congress 
enables  us  to  select  the  President  of  our  Republic  in  a  few 
hours. 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF  A  NATION  307 

President  Roosevelt  and  the  Hague  Court 

It  is  also  a  fact  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  can 
do  a  great  deal  of  harm  or  a  great  deal  of  good  during  his 
four  years  of  office,  and  this  is  why  my  first  visit  was  made 
to  the  White  House  in  1902 .  I  came,  with  the  consent  of  my 
American  colleagues  and  friends,  Andrew  D.  White,  Seth 
Low,  Frederick  W.  Holls  and  Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  to 
make  an  appeal  to  the  President's  power  of  initiative  against 
the  force  of  inertia  exerted  by  European  governments.  The 
manner  in  which  this  unusual  step  was  received  is  so  good 
an  instance  of  the  services  the  United  States  can  render 
the  world,  that  I  should  not  be  justified  in  passing  over  it 
now.  I  can  remember  almost  every  word  of  the  address 
I  delivered  in  support  of  my  cause.  "  Europe,"  I  said  to 
President  Roosevelt  (in  the  presence  of  that  distinguished 
ambassador,  Jules  Cambon,  who  took  no  exception  to  my 
remarks),  "is  watching  you  closely.  Liberal  opinion  in 
Europe  has  no  leader,  now  that  Gambetta  and  Gladstone 
are  dead.  You  will  be  either  a  cause  for  great  expectations 
or  a  great  source  of  danger,  according  to  whether  you  act 
on  the  side  of  justice  or  of  brute  force."  Here  the  Presi 
dent  broke  in  by  warmly  asserting  his  attachment  to  peace. 
"You  can  affirm  that  attachment,"  I  continued,  "by  an 
act  which  will  earn  you  and  your  country  the  gratitude  of 
the  whole  world.  You  can  show  Europe  the  path  of  peace 
and  lead  her  on  it." 

I  then  explained  what  I  had  been  explaining  in  vain  for 
the  past  three  years  in  Europe  —  the  work  of  the  first  Peace 
Congress  at  The  Hague.  It  accomplished  more  than  any 
one  could  have  hoped,  but  was  regarded  as  abortive  by  a 
skeptical  diplomatic  world.  I  laid  stress  on  the  practical 
usefulness  of  the  agreement  for  the  peaceful  settlement  of 
international  conflicts  and  on  the  services  that  might  be 
rendered  by  the  new  arbitration  court  if  only  it  were  utilized ; 


308  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

but  no  one  was  willing  to  use  it,  and  no  one  would  believe 
in  it  or  give  it  a  trial. 

"Have  this  boycotting  stopped,"  I  urged;  "let  your 
side  of  the  Atlantic  set  an  example  of  the  confidence  we  do 
not  possess  in  Europe.  Cross  the  ocean  to  appeal  to  a 
court  that  is  practically  next  door  to  us.  Like  all  govern 
ments,  your  State  Department  keeps  among  its  archives 
the  papers  relating  to  a  dozen  or  so  of  international  dis 
putes  that  have  been  pending  for  years.  Such  permanent 
differences  embitter  the  relations  of  the  countries  concerned, 
paralyze  all  attempts  at  conciliation  and  maintain  a  state 
of  antagonism  without  any  real  cause.  Take  one  of  these 
questions,  it  does  not  matter  which,  submit  it  openly  to 
arbitration,  and  you  will  save  the  Hague  tribunal." 

I  should  have  been  more  than  ungrateful  if  I  had  not  paid 
due  tribute  to  President  Roosevelt  for  the  frankness  and 
promptitude  with  which  he  acceded  to  my  request.  "Go 
and  see  the  secretary  of  state,  Mr.  John  Hay,"  he  said, 
"and  use  my  name.  He  will  do  whatever  can  be  done." 
I  did  not  fail  to  take  this  advice,1  and  we  went  to  see  Mr. 
Hay  at  once.  I  found  him  animated  by  a  soul  that  needed 
no  awakening  and  had  long  been  devoted  to  the  service  of 
just  causes.  A  month  afterward,  April  7,  1902,  M.  Jules 
Cambon  wrote  officially  to  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs 
in  Paris  that  the  government  of  the  United  States  and  its 
neighbor  Mexico  had  decided  to  submit  the  question  of  the 
"pious  funds  "  of  the  Calif  ornias  to  the  Hague  tribunal.  The 
hint  was  understood,  and  I  took  it  upon  myself  to  see  that 
due  importance  was  attached  to  it  in  Europe.  The  es 
tablishment  of  the  arbitration  group  in  the  French  par 
liament  dates  from  this  period.  European  governments 
were  able  to  ignore  the  new  jurisdiction  so  long  as  no  one 
took  any  notice  of  it,  but  when  it  attracted  litigants  from 

1  See  the  twelfth  installment  of  "Chapters  of  a  Possible  Autobiography," 
by  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Outlook,  Dec.  27,  1913,  p.  921. 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF   A   NATION  309 

the  New  World,  and  when  America  herself  intrusted  her 
cause  to  a  court  sitting  in  Europe,  the  situation  was  com 
pletely  altered.  Moreover,  other  support,  also  of  a  very 
influential  nature,  —  I  am  proud  of  having  helped  to  obtain 
it,  with  the  assistance  of  my  colleague  and  friend,  General 
Porter,  —  was  forthcoming  for  the  Hague  tribunal.  When 
the  various  governments  decided  to  recognize  it,  but  could 
not  make  up  their  minds  to  build  a  courthouse  for  it  or 
even  to  buy  one,  Andrew  Carnegie  undertook  to  provide 
it  with  a  palace.  Europe  did  not  hesitate  to  accept  this 
magnificent  present,  learn  the  lesson  it  implied  and  follow 
the  example.  Since  that  time,  the  Hague  Convention, 
though  unable  to  prevent  all  wars  (which  nobody  expected), 
has  nevertheless  succeeded  in  bringing  about  the  amicable 
settlement  of  serious  conflicts  such  as  the  Doggerbank  and 
Casablanca  questions,  not  to  mention  others,  which  would 
have  been  quite  enough  to  start  a  general  war  and  furnish  a 
source  of  perpetual  conflict  for  the  future.  It  may  also 
be  that  the  surprise  caused  by  the  ease  with  which  these 
matters  were  adjusted  gave  the  countries  concerned  an 
impetus  towards  still  more  difficult  understandings.  If 
this  is  the  case,  M.  Jules  Cambon,  our  ambassador  in  Berlin, 
had  no  cause  to  regret,  when  he  signed  the  Franco- German 
Convention  of  Nov.  4,  1911,  referred  to  above  (stipulating 
that  any  difficulties  which  might  arise  between  the  two 
governments  in  regard  to  the  interpretation  of  the  conven 
tion  should  be  submitted  to  the  Hague  tribunal) ,  the  assist 
ance  he  gave  to  the  movement  started  in  Washington  ten 
years  earlier. 

Mr.  Taft  and  Arbitration  Treaties 

Mr.  Taft,  supported  by  Elihu  Root,  quite  the  type  of  the 
practical  American  idealist  statesman,  has  shown  himself 
just  as  much  in  favor  of  the  policy  of  arbitration  as  his 


310  AMERICA  AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

predecessor  was.  Mr.  Taft  even  went  too  far,  when  Secre 
tary  of  State  Knox  was  the  successor  of  Elihu  Root,  when  he 
signed  general  treaties  of  compulsory  and  unrestricted  arbi 
tration  with  France  and  Great  Britain.  If  he  did  not  go  too 
far,  he  went  too  fast  at  any  rate.  He  responded  to  the  general 
sentiment  of  the  United  States,  but  he  outstripped  Con 
gress.  He  understood  his  country  better  than  its  parlia 
ment.  The  fact  is  that  parliaments  act  in  close  sympathy 
with  the  influences  to  which  they  owe  their  election  and 
not  out  of  regard  for  aspirations  after  some  future  state  of 
things.  Parliaments  even  counteract  such  aspirations 
until  the  latter  are  brought  to  their  notice  by  the  electors. 
Admitting  that  Mr.  Taft  had  succeeded  in  more  or  less 
taking  Congress  by  surprise  and  inducing  it  to  pass  his 
treaties,  could  he  answer  for  their  not  being  repudiated  if 
arbitration  went  against  the  United  States  and  the  finding 
had  to  be  carried  into  effect?  It  was  better  to  fail  than  to 
run  the  risk  of  such  a  setback,  which  would  have  been 
nothing  less  than  scandalous. 

The  White  House  as  Battle  Field 

The  White  House  will  always  be  the  battle  ground  of 
forces  that  are  difficult  to  bring  into  harmony,  such  as 
public  sentiment,  which  is  often  complex,  and  the  atmos 
phere  of  society  and  officialism.  Public  sentiment  pre 
vailed  in  the  instance  I  have  just  quoted,  but  will  this 
always  be  the  case?  I  believe  it  will,  on  condition  that 
this  sentiment  does  not  deteriorate  for  want  of  definite 
guidance.  "How  long  will  your  Republic  last?"  M. 
Guizot  once  asked  the  poet  Lowell.  The  latter  replied: 
"As  long  as  the  ideas  of  the  men  who  founded  it." 

The  White  House  will  have  hard  work  to  defend  itself. 
It  is  steeped  in  an  atmosphere  of  officials,  in  addition  to  a 
great  number  of  retired  military  and  naval  officers.  The 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF  A  NATION  311 

diplomatic  corps  has  its  influence  on  the  social  circles,  not 
all  of  which  are  imbued  with  the  traditions  of  Mount 
Vernon.  I  have  seen  some  very  bad  cosmopolitan  habits 
try  to  graft  themselves  on  to  the  independent  ways  of 
America. 

Capital  or  Court  of  a  Democracy? 

All  this  kind  of  thing  affects  the  moral  atmosphere  of  a 
city.  Just  as  the  American  society  woman  and  her  bril 
liant  surroundings  already  constitute  the  aristocracy  of 
the  country,  so  the  Federal  city,  made  up  as  it  is,  may 
easily  become  a  small  court  instead  of  a  great  capital : 
the  court  of  a  democracy !  In  this  event,  how  much  will 
be  left  of  the  spirit  of  Mount  Vernon?  What  hope  will 
remain  for  European  thought?  What  will  become  of  the 
germs  of  independence  sown  by  the  founders  of  the  United 
States? 

Chateaubriand  defined  General  Washington's  immense 
achievement  in  his  celebrated  comparison  with  the  life 
work  of  Napoleon  I.  "Look  at  the  forests  in  which  Wash 
ington's  sword  flashed,  and  what  do  you  find  there? 
Graves?  No;  a  world.  Washington  left  the  United 
States  as  a  trophy  on  his  battle  field.'' 

The  world  referred  to  by  Chateaubriand  now  exceeds, 
in  extent,  population  and  wealth,  anything  that  its  founders 
could  possibly  have  expected  it  to  attain  in  so  brief  a  period, 
and  its  fate  will  virtually  be  decided  in  this  city.  I  have 
never  better  realized  what  was  the  mission  of  the  New  World 
and  the  duty  of  America.  The  material  progress  achieved 
has  surpassed  all  expectations,  but  unless  moral  progress 
keeps  it  close  company,  the  whole  fabric  will  be  in  danger. 
Americans  fully  appreciate  this,  and,  consequently,  they 
are  bringing  their  efforts  to  bear  on  all  sides  of  the  question 
at  the  same  time  —  on  political  and  economic  programs, 
education  and  religion.  American  idealists  do  not  say 


312  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

so,  but  their  duty,  I  believe,  is  to  regenerate  the 
Old  World  by  giving  it  the  program  of  government 
which  at  present  it  does  not  possess  —  the  program, 
not  of  a  party,  but  of  an  epoch,  the  program  which 
ambitious  calculations  can  modify  only  in  detail,  which 
corresponds  to  the  permanent  interests  of  a  country  and 
therefore  ought  to  be  known  to  every  one  and  carried 
out  automatically  with  the  cooperation  of  every  one.  In 
reality,  this  program  would  be  the  same  everywhere  as 
regards  its  main  principles ;  and  a  great  service  would  be 
rendered  to  the  cause  of  peace  by  simplifying  these  prin 
ciples  to  such  an  extent  that  they  would  become  generally 
evident.  The  same  process  might  be  followed  with  re 
ligion.  Europe  is  trying  hard  to  preserve  religions  that 
are  falling  into  disuse,  like  everything  else.  Would  not 
the  United  States  accomplish  the  highest  kind  of  social 
function  between  the  Far  East  and  Europe  by  seek 
ing  after  a  religion  of  conciliation  —  a  new  religion  that 
would  shut  no  one  out  from  participation  in  its  higher 
humanity  ? 

Is  it  asking  too  much  of  the  United  States  to  expect 
such  services  from  it  ?  No.  Let  us  adapt  them  to  its  size 
and  age.  The  New  World  owes  a  debt  to  us  Europeans  who, 
for  five  centuries,  have  peopled  it  with  our  children  and 
enriched  it  with  our  heroism.  In  return  for  these,  it  ought 
to  give  us  an  ideal  and  an  object ;  its  duty  is  to  be  a  revival 
and  not  a  copy  of  Europe.  If  the  government  of  the 
United  States  tried  to  evade  payment  of  this  debt  and  the 
accomplishment  of  this  filial,  national  and  world-wide 
duty,  it  would  be  partly  responsible  for  a  colossal  disap 
pointment  and  would  be  utterly  untrue  to  itself.  No  ;  it 
can  no  longer  arrest  its  progress,  neither  can  it  turn  back. 
It  will  not  allow  the  signatures  and  pledges  of  the  heroes 
whose  testamentary  executors  it  is,  to  be  dishonored.  It 
will  not  extinguish  the  blazing  torch  placed  in  its  hand. 


THE   SPRINGTIME   OF  A  NATION  313 

The  Eagle  or  the  Star? 

The  foregoing  causes  for  uneasiness  presented  themselves 
to  my  mind  on  the  very  first  day  of  my  acquaintance  with 
Washington  society,  and  again  ten  years  later,  even  in  the 
charming  surroundings  of  its  gardens.  All  this  prosperity 
and  luxury  are  a  good  sign,  as  I  have  said,  and  an  evidence 
of  progress,  but  there  is  also  the  danger  of  a  state  of  exist 
ence  surrounded  with  comforts  —  the  temptation  to  fall 
in  with  a  system  that  is  more  selfish  than  generous  and  is 
based  on  the  principle  of  every  one  for  himself  and  the  gov 
ernment  for  all.  It  is  therefore  probable  that  the  govern 
ment  will  be  more  and  more  left  to  itself  and  will  conse 
quently  have  to  keep  abreast  of  the  constantly  increasing 
difficulty  of  its  task.  As  I  draw  farther  and  farther  away 
from  Washington,  I  see  the  symbolical  eagle  stand  out 
more  and  more  clearly  on  the  sky  of  the  United  States,  and 
it  often  seems  to  me  that  the  Americans  have  two  entirely 
different  destinies  befoje  them,  each  represented  by  one 
of  their  chosen  emblems.  The  one,  precondemned  and 
intolerable  to  the  modern  world,  is  domination,  represented 
by  the  eagle ;  the  other,  eternal  and  beneficent,  is  guidance, 
embodied  by  the  star. 

The  American  people  have  instinctively  chosen  the 
nobler  and  the  safer  part,  but  will  not  the  government 
often  be  tempted  to  be  unfaithful  to  it? 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE   IDEALISTIC   MOVEMENT 

EVERYTHING  FOR  THE  FUTURE:  EDUCATION.  Nation-building. — 
i.  FREEDOM  OF  INSTRUCTION:  GENERALIZATION  IMPOSSIBLE. 
Educational  establishments.  Margaret  Morrison  School.  Domes 
tic  economy.  The  dietitian.  German  teachers  of  French.  One  of 
the  results  of  our  wars.  "E  pluribus  unum."  The  leaders  of 
public  spirit.  Trustees.  Lafayette  College.  Columbia  Univer 
sity.  Harvard.  Yale.  Princeton.  Coeducation.  Vassar  College. 
Girls'  Normal  College  in  New  York.  Meeting  of  school  children. 
The  protection  of  youth.  The  Sorbonne  and  the  Boulevard  St. 
Michel.  The  Church  as  a  school.  Toleration  at  the  universities. 
Freedom  for  educators.  —  2.  LAKE  MOHONK:  THE  BROTHERS 
SMILEY.  The  lake  cure.  Debating  great  ideas.  Supporting  great 
causes.  —  3.  THE  EDUCATION  OF  POLITICAL  PARTIES.  Political 
classifications.  Misleading  names.  The  dissatisfied.  The  center 
between  the  two  wings.  Progressives  and  Socialists.  Comparative 
weakness  of  Socialism.  —  4.  THE  INDIANS  :  AMERICAN  IMPATIENCE. 
History  of  colonization.  French  and  English.  Spaniards  and  Puri 
tans.  Prairie  Caesars.  —  5.  THE  NEGROES  :  THE  INEVITABLE  DAY 
OF  RECKONING.  The  slave  trade.  The  war  of  secession.  Negroes 
liberated  but  not  made  citizens.  Mingling  of  races.  Unassimi- 
lated  population.  The  negro  in  a  white  democracy.  Injustice  to 
be  confirmed  or  atoned  for.  Americans  have  faith.  —  6.  RELIGION  : 
Is  it  dying  out  or  becoming  modernized  ?  Competition  in 
well-doing.  Religion  of  good.  Christian  Scientists.  Mrs. 
Mary  Baker  Eddy.  People  who  imagine  themselves  sick. 
Mind  cures.  The  Scientists'  newspaper.  Their  Mother  Church  in 
Boston.  Union  of  Religions:  the  spirit  of  the  French  revolu 
tion.  The  pioneer  of  pioneers.  Sentiment  and  reason.  Indif 
ference  to  dogma.  The  Unitarians.  Man's  duties.  Rival  gods. 
Morality  common  to  all.  Back  to  the  real  Christian  spirit. 
Phillips  Brooks.  The  religion  of  the  future.  American  women  and 
secularization  in  France.  —  7.  Civic  AND  PHILANTHROPIC  WORKS  : 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  315 

THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  AT  SEATTLE.  Pastor  Matthews. 
Andrew  Carnegie.  Dunfermline.  Edwin  Ginn.  Scientific  manage 
ment.  American  Museums.  A  model  farm.  —  8.  CHILDREN  :  TEACH 
ING  THEM  HOW  TO  PLAY  I  THEIR  NEED  FOR  LlFE,  SPACE,  CHEER 
FULNESS,  LIGHT,  NATURE  AND  ESPECIALLY  QUIET.  Playground 
Associations.  Tadpoles.  Imitation  war.  Bonfires.  Excursions. 
John  Brashear.  Doing  the  honors  of  the  sky.  Libraries.  John 
Bigelow.  The  pageant.  The  light  of  truth.  The  Christian 
command. 

Public  Spirit 

THE  difference  between  a  government  with  retrograde 
tendencies  and  a  constantly  progressive  country  would  be 
all  the  greater  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  whole  of  the 
United  States  is  impelled  by  a  great  idealistic  movement. 
The  more  it  is  felt  to  be  necessary,  and  the  more  obstacles 
it  encounters,  the  more  pronounced  it  becomes.  We  are 
not  concerned  with  knowing  whether  the  population  of  the 
United  States  contains  bad  elements  as  well  as  good  ones, 
or  whether  a  traveler  from  Europe,  more  or  less  lost  in  such 
a  new  sphere,  hits  upon  the  worst  part  of  it,  like  an  Ameri 
can  on  the  Paris  boulevards,  or  whether,  from  the  top  to 
the  bottom  of  the  social  ladder,  he  meets  men  and  women 
who  are  irresponsible  or  hypocritical  or  cynical,  or  even 
monsters,  for  these  are  to  be  found  in  the  United  States 
just  as  in  other  countries.  What  we  want  to  know  is 
whether  the  United  States  possesses  a  public  spirit  that 
strives  to  master  these  monsters  and  prevent  them  from 
doing  harm. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  public  spirit  exists  in  a  very  high 
degree.  It  is  progressing,  it  is  becoming  organized,  and  its 
influence  is  being  exerted  in  all  directions.  Whether  we 
call  it  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  patriotism  or  ideal 
ism  —  the  term  is  of  little  consequence  —  it  constitutes  a 
very  great  moral  force,  at  the  service  of  the  United  States, 
first  of  all,  and  of  civilization  afterward.  It  exists  in  every 


316  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

State  and  every  town,  and,  more  or  less,  in  every  household, 
rich  or  poor.  I  will  even  include  the  richest,  in  which  the 
rentier,  as  we  call  him  in  France,  is  unknown,  the  idle  and 
selfish  find  no  sympathy,  and  every  one,  carried  on  by  his 
own  momentum  and  constitutionally  unable  to  rest,  must 
go  on,  whether  he  likes  it  or  not,  working  and  working, 
serving  and  dedicating  himself  to  some  cause.  Perhaps 
our  French  pioneers  bequeathed  something  of  this  sacred 
fire,  so  different  from  the  impassibility  or  indolence  of  other 
nations. 

Now  that  I  am  back  again  in  the  Eastern  states,  which 
are  more  or  less  generally  known,  I  shall  no  longer  write 
in  reference  to  my  actual  route.  I  have  already  gone  over 
it  backwards  and  forwards,  and  skipped  from  point  to  point. 
Now  that  I  am  reaching  the  closing  stage  of  my  journey, 
and  of  my  book,  I  prefer  to  dwell,  not  on  cities  but  on  ob 
servations  and  the  ideas  they  have  suggested  to  me.  These 
ideas,  weighed  in  the  course  of  my  various  visits,  have  auto 
matically  developed  into  definite  conclusions,  if  I  may  say 
so  without  appearing  pretentious. 

Education.     Nation  Building 

The  essential  work  of  American  public  spirit  can  be  ex 
pressed  in  one  word  —  education.  The  ideal  of  the  Amer 
ican  man  and  the  American  woman  is  to  instruct,  en 
lighten  and  guide  the  young,  and  through  them  the  nation, 
towards  good,  by  all  possible  means  and  regardless  of  cost. 
Everything  is  for  the  young  and  for  the  future.  This  is  a 
spontaneous  impulse  still  more  general  in  the  newer  states 
than  in  the  older.  This  impulse  itself  is  the  most  eloquent 
example,  because  it  is  disinterested  and  because  it  is  a  proof 
of  faith  in  the  future  of  the  country.  How  can  young 
people  and  children  fail,  under  such  conditions,  to  aim 
high  and  to  look  straight  ahead,  and  what  confidence  must 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  317 

be  theirs,  seeing  that  they  are  too  few  for  the  national 
needs,  that  they  can  choose  any  career  and  that  their  sense 
of  personal  responsibility  develops  in  proportion  to  the 
services  they  are  sure  to  render,  knowing,  as  they  do,  that 
their  coming  is  expected  and  that  they  are  relied  upon! 
The  ambition  to  be  useful,  and  to  do  one's  duty  twice,  in 
stead  of  once,  among  a  people  that  has  undertaken  to  fill  a 
world,  is  rather  different  from  the  European  youth's  notion 
that  his  chief  business  is  to  find  a  comfortable  place  for 
himself. 

This  determination  to  be  useful  I  have  constantly  ob 
served  among  the  young  all  over  America,  and,  through  its 
very  nature,  it  is  carried  to  excess.  Every  young  American 
considers  himself  indispensable  and  tells  himself  that  he 
will  help  to  make  his  country  a  very  great  one,  the  greatest 
of  all,  the  finest,  and  so  on.  We  know  the  American  fond 
ness  for  superlatives.  It  corresponds  to  a  child's  enthu 
siasm.  It  is  unbearable  when  it  develops  and  degenerates 
into  jingo  vanity.  This  is  the  other  side  of  the  shield,  but 
it  is  also  a  reason  for  not  letting  the  rising  generation  grow 
up  in  ignorance  of  the  world  abroad.  This  is  why  Ameri 
cans  are  ceasing  to  be  absorbed  in  their  immense  labor  of 
nation  building  and  are  looking  abroad  and  summoning  so 
many  foreigners  whom  they  accept  as  masters  and  who  tell 
them  of  Europe,  the  past,  art  and  nature,  give  them  models 
and  points  of  comparison  and  open  out  wide  horizons  to 
their  view.  This  is  why  they  allow  the  fullest  liberty  to 
the  growth  and  multiplication  of  universities  and  colleges, 
schools,  institutes,  scholarships,  foundations,  lectureships, 
debating  societies,  addresses,  congresses,  exhibitions,  labo 
ratories,  missions  foreign  and  domestic,  voyages,  inquiries, 
statistics,  libraries,  churches,  museums,  playgrounds  and 
concerts  —  in  short  the  innumerable  educational  institu 
tions,  to  give  an  exact  idea  of  which  we  should  need  an 
encyclopedia. 


318  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

i.   Freedom  of  Education.    Generalization  Impossible 

The  organization  —  or,  to  put  it  more  correctly,  the 
inevitable  disorder  —  of  education  in  the  United  States  is 
puzzling  to  a  Frenchman.  An  Englishman  might  see  his 
way  through  it,  but  a  Frenchman  would  be  lost.  It  is 
like  a  half-built  house,  or  a  virgin  forest  of  freely  and 
spontaneously  improvised  institutions  that  have  cropped 
up  from  time  to  time,  without  any  general  plan,  to  meet 
requirements  as  the  various  states  came  into  being.  But 
we  must  beware  of  assuming  that,  because  there  is  a  lack 
of  order  in  the  whole,  the  same  condition  prevails  in  the 
parts.  Every  one  of  these  numerous  free  institutions  op 
erates  under  the  superintendence  and  the  constant  and 
devoted  control  of  the  persons  chiefly  interested  —  fathers, 
mothers,  sisters,  brothers,  former  pupils,  subscribers  and 
good  citizens.  We  need  look  no  further  for  the  explanation. 
This  state  of  things  is  certainly  not  perfection,  but  it  is 
genesis ;  it  is  life.  Individual  initiative  makes  up  for  what 
is  lacking  in  general  management  and  experience.  Initia 
tive  is  further  strengthened  by  emulation  among  states, 
cities  and  universities.  I  begin  to  wonder  whether  the 
great  Federal  university  imagined  by  Washington  (and 
marked  on  L'Enfant's  plan,  no  doubt  in  anticipation  of 
its  creation)  with  its  influence  over  all  the  states,  would 
not  have  ended  by  doing  more  harm  than  good  and  killing 
the  germs  of  independence,  originality  and  vigor  in  its 
satellites.  I  understand  why  the  Americans  will  not  have 
it.  Their  freedom  of  education,  and  all  freedom  of  educa 
tion,  is  possible  only  in  a  country  in  which  there  is  no 
power  able  to  profit  by  appropriating  it.  It  is  impossible 
in  France.  It  is  possible  in  England,  where  the  Protestant 
and  Catholic  churches  counterbalance  each  other.  It  is 
possible  in  a  decentralized  country.  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
have  done  without  the  influence  of  London,  and  Heidel- 


THE   IDEALISTIC   MOVEMENT  319 

berg,  Gottingen  and  Bonn  did  not  wait  for  Berlin.  It  has 
already  been  asked  whether  future  idealism,  and  conse 
quently  progress,  in  Germany  will  not  suffer  from  Prussian 
predominance. 

In  the  United  States  we  have  to  begin  by  forgetting  that 
there  is  a  state,  and  accustoming  ourselves  to  the  idea  of 
federation,  which  is  vague  and  abstract  to  the  majority  of 
Europeans.  Only  the  credulous  and  ignorant  can  general 
ize  here.  Let  us  try  to  imagine  an  American  discussing 
Europe  without  stopping  to  distinguish  between  Naples 
and  London,  Paris  and  Moscow,  Christiania  and  Con 
stantinople.  Every  part  of  the  United  States  is,  not  a 
province,  but  a  country  differing  from  the  others  in  its 
climate,  soil,  produce,  population  and  customs.  The 
sudden  introduction  of  railroads,  telegraphs,  newspapers 
and  foreign  immigration  has  already  brought  in  a  mass  of 
assimilating  innovations  of  more  or  less  doubtful  value. 
Is  it  desirable  that  education  itself,  which  has  hardly  begun, 
should  be  modeled  all  over  the  continent  on  patterns  im 
ported  from  the  East  and  from  Europe  ? 

Educational  Establishments 

American  educational  establishments  are  more  or  less 
roughly  divided  into  four  general  classes,  not  in  accordance 
with  the  pupils'  sex  or  the  nature  and  extent  of  their  studies, 
but  with  their  age.  The  first  object  is  to  bring  the  number 
of  illiterates  down  to  nothing.  This  is  done  with  greater 
success  than  in  France,  although  the  work  has  to  be  carried 
out  over  the  enormous  extent  of  a  continent  which  is  com 
paratively  very  thinly  populated.  From  six  to  fourteen 
the  children  are  at  grammar  school.  Then  comes  the 
high  school,  where  the  pupil  remains  from  fourteen  to 
seventeen,  and  next  the  college,  where  the  course  usually 
covers  four  years,  and  finally  the  university,  which  is  not 


320  AMERICA  AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

always  easy  to  distinguish  from  the  college  and  where  young 
men  and  girls  follow  a  higher  course  and  specialize,  if  need 
be,  in  science,  letters,  art,  theology,  law,  medicine,  phar 
maceutical  chemistry,  dentistry,  veterinary  surgery,  etc. 
I  do  not  attempt  to  enumerate  the  thousands  of  technical 
and  professional  schools  and  colleges  generously  provided 
with  laboratories,  museums,  libraries  and  model  work 
shops  with  the  latest  appliances ;  neither  do  I  include  the 
special  schools  for  agriculture,  engineering,  mechanics, 
architecture,  etc.  The  Military  School  at  West  Point  and 
the  Naval  School  at  Annapolis  are  well  known,  and 
there  are,  in  the  South,  special  schools  (Tuskegee,  for 
instance)  for  negroes.  In  all  parts  of  the  country 
there  are  excellent  institutions  for  abnormal  children. 
No  large  town  is  without  its  normal  schools  for  girls 
and  boys,  because  finding  a  sufficient  supply  of  teachers  is 
one  of  the  great  difficulties  in  a  new  country.  The  pro 
fessor  and  the  teacher,  both  man  and  woman,  are  still,  in 
many  states,  regular  missionaries.  They  can  also  be  very 
badly  off,  underpaid  and  thought  very  little  of ;  but  if  we 
want  to  judge  the  United  States  without  prejudice,  we  must 
admit  that  all  this  education,"  spread  very  unequally  over 
such  a  surface,  and  often  into  deserts,  with  a  wretchedly  small 
staff  to  begin  with  and  more  or  less  precarious  means,  has,  in 
a  very  short  space  of  time,  produced  results  that  promise 
well  for  the  future  and  are  already  worthy  of  admiration. 
The  Americans  have  looked  everywhere  for  ideas.  They 
have  imitated  the  German  kindergartens  very  successfully, 
with  the  addition  of  the  largest  possible  number  of  play 
grounds,  swimming  baths,  parks,  open  spaces  and  enter 
tainments  for  all  classes  of  children.  It  all  depends  on  the 
degree  of  initiative  possessed  by  each  state  and  city.  The 
most  advanced  of  them  expend  a  great  deal  of  care  and 
imagination,  which  are  even  better  than  money,  on  this 
department  of  education.  One  institution  they  admire 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  321 

very  much  in  France,  the  infant  school  (ecole  maternelle), 
does  not  appear  to  thrive  as  well  in  their  country  as  it  does 
in  ours ;  the  French  mother  cannot  be  exported. 

Margaret  Morrison  School 

On  the  other  hand,  I  visited  a  very  original  technical 
school  at  Pittsburgh.  It  forms  part  of  an  admirable  group 
of  institutions  —  quite  an  educational  town,  founded  by 
Andrew  Carnegie,  and  containing,  not  only  a  colossal  in 
stitute  like  a  museum,  a  library  and  a  school  of  fine  arts 
rolled  into  one,  but  four  technical  schools,  three  for  boys 
and  one  for  girls.  This  last,  the  Margaret  Morrison  school, 
dedicated  by  Andrew  Carnegie  to  the  memory  of  his  mother, 
is  intended  to  give  women  practical  preparation  for  their 
mission  in  life ;  and  this  mission  is  not  a  purely  material 
one.  The  following  inscription  thus  defines  it: 

"  To  create  and  inspire  the  home, 
To  decrease  suffering  and  increase  happiness, 
To  assist  humanity  in  its  struggle  to  rise, 
To  ennoble  and  adorn  labor,  however  humble, 
This  is  the  great  object  of  woman." 

The  pupils  of  this  school  are  not  taught  merely  the 
elements  of  a  profession  and  what  is  necessary  to  enable 
them  to  fill  a  post,  such  as  stenography,  typewriting,  book 
keeping,  secretarial  work,  business  correspondence,  arith 
metic,  modern  languages,  freehand  and  technical  drawing, 
embroidery,  sewing,  dressmaking,  everyday  law,  singing, 
gymnastics,  washing,  practical  chemistry  and  hygiene; 
moral  principles,  the  education  of  children,  and  deportment 
are  taught  as  well,  and  special  importance  is  attached  to 
the  art  of  keeping  the  home  in  good  order.  The  Americans 
have  reduced  our  principles  to  laws.  They  teach  people 
how  to  choose  a  habitation,  however  small ;  to  know  which 
way  it  should  face,  how  the  rooms  can  be  used  to  the  best 


322  AMERICA  AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

advantage,  and  how  it  should  be  furnished,  kept  clean  and 
made  healthy ;  in  short,  how  to  manage  a  household. 


Domestic  Economy 

Every  pupil  learns  what  every  good  housewife  ought  to 
know,  and  I  have  observed  that  domestic  economy,  which 
is  peculiarly  a  French  science,  is  beginning  to  become  gen 
erally  known  in  the  United  States,  where  the  old-time  house 
wife,  to  whom  our  forefathers  owed  their  good  cooking, 
good  cheer,  good  digestion  and  good  humor,  is  in  process  of 
slow  formation.  The  girls  of  the  Margaret  Morrison  School 
have  a  whole  set  of  rooms  on  which  to  practice.  Each  of 
them  lives  in  it  for  a  week  in  turn  and  plays  the  part  of 
mistress  of  the  house.  Another  acts  as  housemaid  and  a 
third  as  cook.  The  lady  receives  her  friends,  orders  the 
meals,  superintends  the  buying  of  the  provisions,  settles 
the  accounts  and  has  to  keep  her  daily  expenditure  strictly 
within  a  fixed  amount.  She  gives  her  friends  little  dinners ; 
the  housemaid  announces  callers,  serves  at  table,  helps 
the  cook  wash  the  dishes,  and  so  on  until  the  end  of  the 
week,  when  the  parts  change  hands,  the  lady  going  into 
the  kitchen,  the  cook  into  the  parlor,  and  then  into  the  linen 
room  and  laundry,  and  so  on.  The  most  astonishing 
thing  is  that  the  girls  all  play  their  parts  without  laughing 
over  them.  Would  this  be  possible  in  France?  They  all 
meet  in  the  big  room  for  gymnastics,  singing  and  music, 
and  in  the  laundry  and  workrooms,  through  which  they 
all  pass,  taking  turns  in  accordance  with  a  very  simple 
system  which  is  sufficient  to  show  what  each  one's  capaci 
ties  are. 

The  Dietitian 

Here  is  another  detail  that  occurs  to  me.  Many  Ameri 
cans,  being  overworked,  and  many  of  the  women  being  very 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  323 

nervous,  they  cannot  always  thrive  on  ordinary  plain  cook 
ing  and  must  have  special  diet  prescribed  by  the  doctor: 
so  many  ounces  of  fat,  so  much  lean  meat ,  so  much  nitrogen, 
and  so  on,  all  carefully  weighed  out  in  the  kitchen  or  pantry. 
A  cook  who  confines  her  ambition  to  preparing  good  food 
cannot  rise  to  these  chemical  analyses.  In  those  houses 
in  which  the  doctor  reigns  supreme  she  has  to  call  in  the 
assistance  of  a  specialist,  in  virtue  of  the  laws  that  regulate 
the  division  of  labor.  This  personage,  whose  rank  is  diffi 
cult  to  define  and  who  is  called  the  "  dietitian,"  regulates 
what  is  to  be  eaten,  drunk  and  avoided,  draws  up  the  bills 
of  fare  and  sees  that  the  doctor's  orders  are  obeyed.  This 
practice  is  sufficiently  general  in  the  United  States  for  a 
school  of  future  housewives  to  undertake  the  education  of 
a  certain  number  of  young  " dietitians"  and  make  room 
for  them  in  its  chemical  laboratory.  These  laboratories 
attract  a  great  many  students.  Some  are  intended  for  the 
study  of  the  everyday  applications  of  chemistry  to  house 
hold  questions,  the  investigation  of  various  kinds  of  food, 
their  composition  and  their  nutritive  properties.  The 
others  are  designed  for  finding  out  the  best  kinds  of  nourish 
ment  for  a  new-born  baby,  a  child,  an  adult,  an  invalid  or 
a  healthy  subject,  or  for  detecting  adulteration. 

The  need  creates  the  function.  Manufacturers  or  farm 
ers,  who  produce,  for  instance,  oil,  cotton,  copper  or 
fruit,  find  difficulty  in  procuring  enough  help  in  their  fac 
tories  or  farms.  Needing  specially  trained  workers,  and 
being  tired  of  looking  for  them  elsewhere,  they  make  up 
their  minds  to  produce  what  they  want  on  the  spot.  It  is 
quite  a  simple  matter.  They  request  the  nearest  uni 
versity  to  supply  the  required  course  of  instruction.  They 
procure,  if  necessary,  the  proper  teachers,  and  provide  occu 
pation  and  a  future  for  their  pupils.  Other  employers,  who 
want  to  develop  international  connections,  inquire  for  young 
men  and  women  who  can  speak  German,  Spanish  or  French 


324  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

and  know  something  about  foreign  usages.  The  outcome 
is  another  series  of  foundations,  lectures  and  results,  ac 
cording  to  the  needs  of  the  case. 


One  of  the  Results  of  our  Wars.     German  Teachers  of 

French 

Thus  it  is  that  Germans,  who  are  superabundant  in  their 
own  country,  and  are  ready  to  go  abroad,  have  flocked  to 
American  universities  in  hundreds  of  thousands ;  and  yet 
French  travelers  complain  of  American  partiality  and  pref 
erence  for  things  German !  It  is  much  easier  to  cry  out 
than  to  think.  In  France  we  are  only  just  beginning  to 
pay  for  our  military  glory.  The  first  result  of  the  wars  in 
the  days  of  Louis  XV  and  Napoleon  I  was  that  we  had  to 
give  up  our  pioneers'  conquests  to  our  foreign  rivals.  The 
wellspring  of  French  influence  and  propagation  reduced 
its  outflow  proportionately.  Our  population,  which  re 
mained  stationary  while  that  of  our  neighbors  doubled,  has 
now  become  barely  sufficient  for  the  increasing  needs  of 
our  public  departments  and  our  internal  affairs.  Never 
theless  it  supplied  an  unexpectedly  large  contingent  for 
our  new  colonial  possessions  in  Africa  and  Asia,  but  we 
cannot  get  enough  school  teachers,  even  for  ourselves ! 
And  yet  we  complain  because  Americans  turn  to  the  Ger 
mans,  and  we  are  surprised  to  find  Tunis  peopled  by  Italians 
and  Morocco  by  Spaniards !  The  truth  is  that  we  cannot 
find  even  a  children's  nurse  who  will  consent  to  go  abroad. 
We  have  to  bring  them  from  Switzerland  and  Germany  for 
our  own  families.  The  truth  is  that  French  teachers  are 
wanted  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  so  long  as  they 
fulfill  requirements.  In  vain  has  Johns  Hopkins  applied 
for  our  agreges  (holders  of  the  highest  French  university 
degree)  and  Vassar  College  for  pupils  who  have  gone 
through  the  course  at  Sevres.  Question  the  few  first-rate 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  325 

French  teachers  who  do  honor  to  our  country  in  the  United 
States,  such  as  A.  Fortier,  Cohn,  Bracq,  Guerard,  etc., 
and  you  will  find  that  they  are  lost  in  a  crowd  of  foreigners 
-  Germans,  Swiss  and  Belgians  —  who  teach  French  in  a 
spirit  which  is  neither  French  nor  American.  It  is  because 
Americans  will  not  do  without  French  and  have  to  take 
what  they  can  get.  Look  at  the  cosmopolitan  university 
clubs  to  which  I  have  more  than  once  referred,  and  you  will 
find  Chinese,  Japanese,  Russians,  Germans,  Scandinavians, 
Italians  and  Indians,  but  not  a  single  Frenchman.  The 
Americans  are  certainly  not  to  blame  for  this.  It  was 
proposed  to  open  two  foreign  houses,  one  German  and  the 
other  French,  within  the  precincts  of  Columbia  University ; 
and  while  the  very  large  German  colony  easily  found  the 
money,  the  French  colony,  select  but  small,  could  not  make 
the  same  effort.  It  had  to  be  left  to  a  generous  American, 
A.  Barton  Hepburn,  and  then  the  cost  of  fitting  up  the  house 
had  to  be  met  partly  by  another  American,  our  friend, 
Robert  Bacon,  partly  by  the  Carnegie  endowment  for  inter 
national  peace.  The  result  is  that  if  France  did  not  exert 
such  an  exceptionally  attractive  force,  and  if  our  pioneers' 
shades  did  not  rise  up  out  of  the  ground  and  speak  to  the 
imagination,  America's  attention  would  be  attracted  and  re 
tained  by  every  country  on  the  globe  except  ours.  It  was 
in  libraries  founded  by  Americans  in  the  Far  East  that  the 
Chinese  found  the  books  they  needed  for  drawing  up  the 
main  principles  of  their  Republican  constitution.  A  coun 
try  cannot  make  war  with  impunity  for  centuries.  It  eats 
into  its  capital ;  it  draws  on  the  generations  to  come,  on 
the  "human  harvest"  of  the  future,  to  use  the  words  of 
President  David  Starr  Jordan ;  it  becomes  either  depopu 
lated  or  materialized.  This  is  the  view  of  a  great  many 
Americans.  Far  from  feeling  attracted  towards  victorious 
Germany,  which  I  long  believed  to  be  the  case,  the  Ameri 
cans  would  like  to  return  to  us,  because  they  appreciate  the 


326  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

persistence  and  disinterestedness  of  our  idealistic  efforts 
and  because  our  conceptions  are  related  to  theirs.  In  pro 
portion  as  the  Germans  repudiate  the  idealism  which  was 
once  their  glory,  they  diminish  the  value  and  the  repu 
tation  of  their  output;  and  their  work  depreciates  be 
cause  it  has  abandoned  goodness  for  utilitarianism.  "  Made 
in  Germany"  stands  for  inferior,  second-rate  goods.  This 
fall  in  the  reputation  of  the  trade-mark  of  a  country  is  an 
incalculable  loss  to  it.  When  Germany  mocks  at  the  pure 
aspirations  of  her  past,  she  is  threatened  by  a  great  danger 
-  that  of  an  intellectual  and  moral  decline  in  proportion  to 
her  material  advance.1 

The  Americans  fully  realize  all  this,  but  as  in  other 
cases,  they  have  no  time  to  pick  and  choose.  It  is  better, 
they  say,  to  have  French  taught  by  Germans  than  not 
to  have  it  taught  at  all. 

"E  Pluribus  Unum" 

The  spirit  of  the  American  universities  could  not  be  so 
alive  and  so  keen  for  true  progress  if  it  did  not  draw  on 
the  infinitely  varied  wellsprings  of  the  whole  country.  "E 
pluribus  unum"  is  one  of  the  mottoes  on  Washington's 
house  at  Mount  Vernon.  But  who  can  guarantee  that  all 
these  springs  are  properly  tapped,  clean  and  pure?  This 
is  the  main  question,  from  the  European  point  of  view ;  it 
does  not  arise  at  all  in  the  United  States,  where  public 
opinion  is  on  the  watch. 

This  is  what  I  want  my  readers  clearly  to  understand. 
I  did  not  realize  it  myself  until  after  a  very  long  time. 

1  The  war,  declared  by  Germany,  in  her  pride,  will  be  followed  by  a 
material  decline  coming  on  the  heels  of  a  moral  and  intellectual  decline. 
German  pride  has  rotted  the  fruit  of  German  efforts.  (March,  1915.) 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  327 

The  Leaders  of  Public  Spirit 

Let  us  take  the  case  of  the  most  independent  self-govern 
ing  universities.  Here  again  it  is  impossible  to  classify 
strictly.  There  are  state  universities,  kept  up  by  the  whole 
body  of  taxpayers,  as  we  have  seen  at  Seattle,  Madison 
and  Berkeley.  There  are  others  that  were  established  by 
the  state  but  enlarged  by  private  donations,  as  Tulane. 
Others  are  supported  by  a  city,  like  New  York  City  College ; 
and  finally  others,  the  most  important  and  prosperous 
of  all,  such  as  Harvard,  Columbia,  Yale,  Johns  Hopkins, 
Chicago,  etc.,  were  founded  by  private  individuals 
and  live  exclusively  on  their  own  resources  and  private 
donations.  The  universities  of  this  last  class  form  the 
principal  nurseries  of  American  enterprise,  and  it  is  there 
fore  a  matter  of  national  importance  to  make  sure  that  they 
are  intellectually  and  morally  well  managed.  Who,  then, 
are  the  gifted  inspectors  responsible  for  their  superinten 
dence  ?  Public  spirit,  or,  to  be  more  exact,  the  nominees  of 
public  spirit. 

Trustees 

Who  are  these  nominees  ?  The  trustees ;  that  is  to  say, 
a  certain  number  of  public-spirited  men,  selected  as  well 
as  possible  to  keep  the  institution  alive.  These  trustees 
do  not  meet  like  a  European  committee  appointed  to  eluci 
date  a  question,  settle  it  or  bury  it.  They  act  as  a  per 
manent  council.  They  look  into  the  accounts,  see  how 
the  management  has  done  its  work  in  the  past  and  give  it 
the  authority  it  needs  for  future  development.  The  presi 
dent  of  a  university  has  the  fullest  liberty  of  action  so  long 
as  he  is  approved  by  the  trustees.  Everything  therefore 
depends  on  how  the  trustees  do  their  work ;  but  what  is 
essentially  American  is  that  the  trustees  do  more  than  take 
their  duties  seriously ;  they  put  their  heart  into  the  work. 


328  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

Many  of  them  are  former  students  of  the  university  and 
are  as  attached  to  it  as  to  their  own  mother.  They  take 
great  pride  in  their  "alma  mater/'  Many  of  them  are 
donors  or  friends  of  donors,  and,  while  the  latter  contribute 
their  money,  it  is  tacitly  understood  that  the  others  give 
their  time  and  trouble.  Their  work,  for  which  they  receive 
no  pay,  must  absorb  a  great  deal  of  time  and  effort,  but 
all  pay  the  tribute  cheerfully.  We  find  many  cases  of  son 
succeeding  father  in  these  honorary  responsibilities,  as  at 
Columbia,  where  President  Seth  Low  (who  did  so  much 
good  and  continues  to  do  so  assiduously  in  combination 
with  his  successor)  simply  continued  his  father's  self-sacri 
ficing  labors  for  the  public.  I  was  present  on  June  5,  1911, 
at  the  great  festival  at  Columbia  known  as  "Commence 
ment  Day."  It  corresponds  to  our  prize  distributions  in 
France  and  is  the  occasion  on  which  the  names  of  those 
students  who  have  passed  their  final  examinations  and  are 
entitled  to  practice  their  profession  —  medicine,  for  in 
stance —  are  announced.  Nothing  is  more  imposing  than 
the  sight  of  the  veteran  educational  volunteers  who  head 
the  procession  of  men  and  girl  students  and  pupils  through 
the  gardens,  which  are  already  too  small  for  the  steadily 
developing  university.  Every  one  who  is  entitled  to  march 
in  this  procession  makes  a  point  of  being  present  every 
year,  and  some  travel  great  distances  so  as  not  to  miss  it. 
The  men  who  lead  the  way  on  this  occasion  are  those  who 
govern  Columbia  University,  constitute  its  public  spirit 
and  are  conscious  of  responsibility  towards  the  pupils,  the 
students,  their  parents  and  the  country  in  general. 

Lafayette  College.     Columbia  University.     Harvard. 
Princeton 

I  was  invited  to  deliver  an  address  at  Lafayette  College, 
a  few  hours'  journey  from  New  York  —  an  address  that 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  320 

appealed  specially  to  the  management  of  this  excellent 
establishment,  in  consequence  of  its  name  and  its  French 
predilections.  A  highly  respected  trustee  came  to  my  hotel 
in  New  York  to  fetch  me,  with  some  of  his  friends.  He 
took  me  to  the  train,  showed  me  to  my  seat,  came  with  me 
and  brought  me  back.  Why?  Because  he  had  given  the 
college  part  of  his  life  and  part  of  his  heart,  and  he  felt  he 
must  be  present.  This  self-sacrificing  attitude  on  the 
part  of  a  man  who  was  elderly,  rich  and  no  doubt  had 
plenty  of  other  things  to  do,  helped  to  throw  a  good  deal  of 
light  on  the  situation. 

The  permanent  outlines  of  public  spirit  in  the  United 
States  are  a  reality,  and  the  effects  are  felt  in  all  depart 
ments  of  life.  In  most  states,  except  in  a  few  of  the  more 
backward,  the  teacher,  who  can  make  or  mar,  is  not  always 
well  paid,  but  generally  honored,  particularly  in  the  higher 
branches  of  education.  Although  there  is  so  great  a  demand 
for  engineers,  architects,  business  men,  lawyers,  farmers, 
merchants,  manufacturers,  bankers  and  so  on,  any  one  who 
has  a  vocation  for  teaching  is  sure  of  encouragement.  Who 
ever  imparts  knowledge  performs  a  public  service  for  which 
the  public  is  grateful.  One  reason  why  I  was  well  received 
in  the  United  States  was  that  my  mission  was  educational. 
University  presidents  fill  an  important  place  in  the  public 
life  of  the  United  States.  Andrew  D.  White,  my  American 
colleague  at  the  first  Hague  Congress,  and  formerly  am 
bassador  at  Berlin,  was  chosen  on  account  of  his  university 
distinction.  The  name  of  Lowell,  poet  and  ambassador, 
is  intimately  connected  with  that  of  Harvard  University, 
of  which  his  nephew  is  now  president.  My  col 
leagues,  David  Jayne  Hill  and  Seth  Low,  were  both  emi 
nent  university  men  and  writers.  President  Emeritus 
Charles  W.  Eliot,  of  Harvard,  and  President  Nicholas 
Murray  Butler,  of  Columbia,  are  in  the  front  rank  of  the 
men  whose  views  carry  weight  in  moral  and  political  ques- 


330  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

tions.  Robert  Bacon  gave  up  his  Paris  embassy  to  place 
his  services,  like  a  good  son  of  his  alma  mater,  at  the  dis 
posal  of  Harvard. 

The  period  of  political  disturbances  through  which  the 
United  States  passed  in  1912  —  a  period  in  which,  con 
trary  to  custom,  there  were  four  candidates  for  President 
instead  of  two  —  ended  in  an  immense  majority  voting 
for  Mr.  Woodrow  Wilson,  although  he  was  in  no  way  su 
perior  to  his  competitors  in  reputation  or  eloquence.  He 
was  president  of  Princeton  University. 

We  thus  find  that,  so  far  from  being  handicapped  by  their 
complete  decentralization  and  infinite  variety,  the  uni 
versities  have  gained  by  it.  Their  organization  has  as 
little  as  possible  of  the  formal  and  official  about  it,  and  is 
run  almost  on  family  lines.  There  is  a  lasting  feeling  of 
comradeship  between  the  successive  generations  of  students, 
at  least  as  regards  those  of  the  same  sex,  as  the  principle  of 
coeducation,  so  general  in  the  West,  is  steadily  losing 
ground  in  the  East,  where  the  grade  of  study  is  higher. 

Coeducation 

This  is  a  great  pity.  Youths  and  girls  are  humanized 
by  semi-fraternal  intercourse  and  are  thus  prepared  to 
know  each  other  better  in  later  life.  Freedom  for  a  girl 
obliges  her  to  exercise  more  self-restraint,  and  also  accus 
toms  a  young  man  to  greater  respect  for  her  and  for  him 
self.  Young  people  should  not  be  isolated  and  made  shy. 
The  young  American  men  whom  I  saw  among  the  girls  in 
the  West  struck  me  as  purer  and  more  attractive  than  any 
where  else,  and  also  as  morally  stronger,  inasmuch  as  they 
undertake  the  most  difficult  part  of  education,  that  of  their 
own  self-will.  They  are  accustomed  to  fight  the  first  battle 
with  themselves  —  the  battle  that  decides  all  the  others. 
They  have  to  choose  between  debauchery,  which  is  im- 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  331 

possible  in  these  surroundings,  and  chastity.  Coeducation 
of  the  sexes  is  a  school  of  uprightness  and  energy.  It  makes 
young  men  more  sociable,  less  awkward  and  better  fitted- 
to  make  their  way  in  life. 

Wellesley  College 

It  seemed  to  me  that  the  Boston  girls  still  enjoyed  great 
liberty.  I  saw  them  flitting  around  in  all  directions,  like 
birds,  in  the  charming  parks  and  landscapes  near  the  city. 
I  saw  many  others  boating  on  the  lakes  and  the  river,  which 
reminded  me  of  the  Thames.  There  were  swarms  of  them 
at  Wellesley,  that  fine  college.  Under  the  shade  of  the 
trees  and  on  the  undulating  lawns  of  the  park  I  saw  them, 
in  their  light-colored  robes,  give  an  extract  from  the 
"  Odyssey  "  translated  into  English.  One  of  them  played 
Ulysses  and  another  was  Nausicaa  with  her  maidens.  It 
was  charming,  but  had  a  tinge  of  melancholy,  more  English 
than  American. 

Vassar  College 

I  also  spoke  at  Vassar  College,  another  place  of  education 
for  girls,  near  the  Hudson.  There  were  no  young  men. 
Here  I  came,  under  the  influence,  perhaps,  of  a  lovely  day 
at  the  end  of  May  and  also  of  an  admirable  superintendent, 
not  to  mention  our  compatriot,  M.  Bracq,  but  it  seemed  to 
me  that  this  independent  college,  founded  by  a  Frenchman 
named  Vasseur,  was  a  tangible  reward  for  American  ini 
tiative  and  confidence.  There  were  hundreds  of  girls,  go 
ing  and  coming  as  they  pleased,  talking  and  playing  games 
in  the  park,  in  which  they  seemed  perfectly  at  home.  They 
were  nearly  all  tall  and  slender.  They  were  bare-headed, 
they  looked  one  straight  in  the  face  and  health  radiated 
from  their  clear  complexions.  They  were  dressed  accord 
ing  to  each  one's  own  taste,  but  all  were  in  very  light  colors. 


332  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

It  was  a  wonderful  glimpse  into  the  future.  It  made  me 
forget  the  present  and  ask  myself  if  this  could  possibly  be 
America  in  the  year  1911?  It  was  more  like  a  vision  of 
ancient  Greece  —  an  island  of  the  ^Egean  Sea  inhabited  by 
nymphs,  among  whom  I  felt  myself  a  being  from  another 
epoch,  another  country  and  even  another  world.  Once 
more  I  had  to  note  that  sports  and  outdoor  life  have  created, 
or  rather  revived,  a  form  of  classic  physical  beauty,  ele 
gance  of  personal  appearance  and  movement  and  general 
distinction,  in  the  United  States  just  as  in  England.  The 
girls  and  young  men  I  have  seen  in  these  American  colleges 
are  certainly  much  nearer  the  Greek  type  than  modern 
Greeks  are.  This  does  not  prevent  the  New  York  boule 
vard  spirit  from  making  fun  of  them.  On  the  walls  and 
boardings  are  posters  of  a  comic  opera,  "The  Vassar  Girls," 
the  subject  of  which  can  be  easily  imagined.  The  boulevard 
spirit,  however,  is  not  that  of  the  American  public ;  of  this 
I  have  seen  plenty  of  proof  in  New  York  itself. 

GirVs  Normal  College  in  New  York 

On  another  occasion  I  was  asked  by  that  distinguished 
Frenchman,  H.  Bargy,  to  give  an  address  to  the  girls  in 
the  New  York  Normal  College.  There  were  more  than  a 
thousand  of  them.  The  only  subject  I  treated  was  their 
influence  on  the  future.  I  have  never  seen  anything  more 
encouraging  than  this  audience,  with  the  high  enthusiasm 
and  spirit  of  cheerful  and  determined  self-sacrifice  that 
shone  from  their  young  faces.  I  was  supposed  to  be  in 
structing  them,  but  no  one  can  tell  how  much  I  learned  from 
these  lectures. 

Meeting  of  School  Children 

A  still  stronger  impression,  an  unforgettable  one,  was  left 
on  my  mind  by  a  meeting  held  in  1907,  while  I  was  on  my 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  333 

way  through  New  York.  The  opportunity  was  taken  to 
bring  all  the  school  children  of  the  city  together  and  initiate 
them  in  what  has  to  be  done  to  disseminate  ideas  of  justice 
and  peace.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  eloquent  than 
this  meeting,  in  the  preparation  of  which  the  educational 
authorities  took  the  greatest  interest.  There  were  four  or 
five  thousand  boys  and  girls  seated  in  their  fresh,  clean 
dresses  and  well-brushed  clothes.  It  was  evident  that  when 
their  turn  came  to  be  citizens  they  would  organize  things 
with  the  same  order  and  discipline  as  in  their  games.  They 
were  genuine  "kids"  before  they  came  in  and  when  they 
went  out,  but  they  were  like  little  citizens  throughout  the 
meeting.  They  felt  a  sense  of  responsibility,  and,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  they  were  responsible.  Any  disturbance 
among  these  thousands  of  children,  left  to  sit  in  the  long 
rows  of  chairs  extending  from  the  stage  right  up  to  the 
balcony,  might  have  degenerated  into  a  panic ;  but  an  army 
of  veterans  could  not  have  maneuvered  in  more  orderly 
style.  It  was  a  voluntary  submission  to  discipline  as  a 
preparation  for  every  other  form  of  discipline  in  the  future. 

The  Protection  of  Youth.     The  Sorbonne  and  the  Boulevard 

St.  Michel 

The  Americans  realize  that  the  mere  instruction  of  the 
young  is  not  enough,  and  for  this  reason  they  have  been 
reproached  for  sacrificing  instruction  too  much.  Young 
people  must  be  brought  up  and  protected  against  themselves 
when  they  enter  upon  life  and  against  the  appeals  of  the 
outside  world.  An  eminent  French  educationalist,  who 
went  over  Columbia  University  with  me,  observed :  "What 
a  number  of  precautions  they  take  to  keep  their  students 
in  the  university !  Look  at  those  two  immense  swimming 
baths,  one  for  the  girls  and  the  other  for  the  boys,  where 
they  can  train  into  champions !  Look  at  the  gymnasium 


334  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

and  playgrounds  —  not  quite  large  enough  here  but  im 
mense  at  other  universities  —  and  look  outside,  in  the 
streets!  There  are  no  bars,  no  drinking  places  and  no 
temptations."  He  was  right,  and  I  could  not  help  drawing 
a  comparison  between  these  motherly  precautions,  not  only 
encouraged  but  insisted  upon  by  American  public  spirit, 
with  the  manner  in  which  our  students,  at  the  Sorbonne, 
for  instance,  are  left  entirely  to  their  own  devices.  Noth 
ing  but  study  in  all  its  beauty,  and  also  its  austerity,  is 
there  to  keep  them  indoors.  They  have  no  park,  not  a 
single  tree  or  playground,  or  place  for  rest;  but  outside, 
at  the  very  door,  is  the  Boulevard  St.  Michel  with  light 
love  constantly  making  claims  on  their  attention  and  in 
flicting  the  temptation  of  St.  Anthony  upon  them.  It  is 
clear  that  those  who  can  withstand  this  temptation  at  the 
age  of  twenty  develop  into  men  of  the  finest  kind,  but  what 
becomes  of  the  others,  among  whom  are  some  of  the  best, 
the  most  generous  and  the  most  highly  gifted? 

Americans  do  not  consider  they  have  done  all  there  is 
to  be  done  when  they  have  established  classes,  lectures, 
museums  and  universities.  Their  object  is  to  produce  not 
merely  a  few  learned  men,  but  generations  of  citizens  and 
real  men.  To  this  end,  they  begin  by  doing  all  they  can 
to  keep  their  young  men  out  of  the  temptation  to  excesses 
that  make  them  old  before  their  time  and  end  by  producing 
nothing  but  invalids,  skeptics  and  brutes,  which  are  the  same 
thing. 

Yale  University.     President  Taft 

In  any  case,  this  system  of  supervised  liberty  succeeds, 
not  with  every  American  I  admit,  but  with  Americans  as  a 
whole.  Their  education  develops  not  only  gracefulness  of 
movement  and  honest  pride,  but  frankness  and  openness  as 
well,  even  among  youths  at  the  awkward  hobbledehoy  age. 
I  have  often  been  struck  by  the  obligingness  of  the  pupils. 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  335 

Here  is  another  instance  of  it.  My  visit  to  Yale  Univer 
sity,  where  ex-President  Taft  is  a  brilliant  professor,  was 
not  on  my  list  of  engagements,  and  no  arrangements  had 
been  made  for  it  by  my  friends.  The  result  was  that, 
when  I  arrived,  I  found  nothing  more  at  the  railroad 
station  than  guides  who,  though  very  polite,  were  both 
discouraged  and  discouraging.  According  to  them,  there 
was  no  one  to  see,  nothing  to  do,  nothing  to  say,  nothing 
to  listen  to  and  so  on.  I  was  especially  disappointed  be 
cause  I  had  induced  the  aviator  Bleriot  and  one  of  our 
French  friends  to  come  with  me.  My  idea  was  to  give 
the  students  a  pleasant  surprise  by  presenting  him  to  them, 
but  all  I  could  find  out  at  first  was  that  nobody  took  any 
interest  in  us  and  that  there  was  nothing  to  be  done  but 
to  lunch  and  go  back  again.  Not  being  easily  turned  from 
my  purpose,  I  grumbled  at  first,  and  then,  having  thought 
the  matter  over,  I  hailed  two  young  students  who  were 
walking  across  the  campus.  I  explained  the  situation,  and 
told  them  that  the  misunderstanding  was  likely  to  make  me 
lose  my  time  and  prevent  their  comrades  from  seeing 
Bleriot.  "That  would  be  a  great  pity,"  they  replied; 
"wait  a  little."  They  went  off  to  see  the  dean,  and  while 
we  lunched  at  a  hospitable  house,  they  spread  the  news 
among  their  comrades,  who  began  to  assemble  in  crowds. 
In  a  very  few  minutes  there  was  an  open-air  mass  meeting 
of  them,  and  we  were  able  to  address  them  in  light-hearted 
style,  shake  hands  with  them  and  tell  one  another  how 
pleased  we  were  to  meet.  The  initiative  and  kindliness  of 
those  young  men  had  saved  the  day  for  us. 

The  Church  as  a  School 

The  most  surprising  thing  is  that  these  instances  of 
initiative  are  never  discouraged.  Some  of  them  are  in 
advisable,  of  course,  but  the  exception  proves  the  rule. 


336  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

The  extreme  liberty  of  America  cannot  exist  without  an 
amount  of  tolerance  incredible  to  many  Europeans.  The 
Vassar  College  girls  belong  to  different  religions.  Some 
are  connected  with  various  Protestant  sects,  others  are 
Christian  Scientists,  Catholics  or  Israelites,  and  some  are 
almost  freethinkers ;  but  the  college  has  only  one  place  of 
worship,  a  fine  church  where  they  all  meet  at  the  same 
time  to  meditate,  sing  hymns  and  repeat  the  same  prayer. 
It  is  one  more  application  of  the  motto  "E  pluribus  unum," 
and  we  shall  find  another  presently.  The  same  principle 
prevails  at  Columbia  University.  I  stopped  in  front  of 
the  chapel  one  day  and  asked  President  Nicholas  Murray 
Butler  to  tell  me  who  conducted  the  service  and  addressed 
the  girls  and  young  men.  "Any  one  who  can  teach  them 
anything  good;  you,  if  you  like,"  he  replied.  "But,"  I 
continued,  "what  if  the  person  who  undertakes  such  a  re 
sponsibility  discharges  it  badly?"  "We  give  credit  for 
good  intentions  and  we  rely  on  public  spirit,  which  governs 
here  just  as  it  does  elsewhere." 

Toleration 

The  church  is  a  school.  Everything,  in  fact,  is  utilized 
for  scholastic  purposes.  Henry  Bargy,  in  his  fine  book  on 
religion  in  the  United  States,  very  justly  observes:  "The 
churches  are  no  longer  sanctuaries.  The  pulpit  is  becoming 
a  platform.  The  teaching  of  moral  and  religious  science  is 
assuming  something  of  a  religious  character,  while  religion 
tends  to  become  secular.  The  church  is  in  process  of  evo 
lution  in  the  direction  of  the  people's  university.  The 
church  is  at  the  service  of  human  intelligence,  instead 
of  man  being  at  the  service  of  God"  (see  page  208).  I 
have  heard  applause  in  churches  and  hymns  in  theaters. 
President  Charles  W.  Eliot,  who  superintended  Harvard 
University  so  brilliantly  for  so  long  a  time,  was  also  the 


THE   IDEALISTIC   MOVEMENT  337 

apostle  of  a  religious  conception  which  does  away  with 
formal  observances  —  a  conception  certainly  not  shared 
by  all  the  parents  of  the  thousands  of  young  men  intrusted 
to  his  guidance,  but  his  educational  influence  was  far  from 
being  diminished  thereby. 

Freedom  for  Educators 

This  tolerance  is  no  less  extraordinary  in  politics.  Presi 
dent  Wheeler,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  is  president  of  the 
California  State  University,  was  a  strong  opponent  of  Presi 
dent  Taft,  or,  in  other  words,  a  strong  supporter  of  Presi 
dent  Taft's  rival,  Colonel  Roosevelt.  In  the  same  state 
was  the  president  of  Stanford  University,  a  Democrat  and 
militant  pacifist.  As  for  New  York,  the  president  of 
Columbia  University  played  an  important  part  in  the  Re 
publican  convention  at  Chicago  ;  and  as  for  the  president  of 
Princeton,  he  could  not  be  anything  but  an  ardent  Wilsonian. 

This  liberty  accorded  to  educators  is  used  even  in  foreign 
politics.  The  strongest  and  most  cordial  encouragement  I 
received  was  at  the  universities;  at  St.  Louis  and  New 
Orleans ;  in  Texas,  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin ;  at  Kansas 
City  and  Colorado  just  as  in  the  states  of  New  York, 
Massachusetts  and  New  England  in  general.  On  all  sides, 
especially  at  the  universities,  I  experienced  something 
better  than  hospitality;  I  found  friends  who  encouraged 
me  and  have  since  worked  continuously  with  me.  It  was 
President  Butler  who  in  1902  urged  me  to  see  President 
Roosevelt,  as  I  have  already  described,  and  ask  for  his 
support  of  the  Hague  tribunal.  He  has  since  placed  him 
self  at  the  head  of  a  movement,  which  harmonizes  very 
well  with  his  university  duties,  for  the  development  of 
internal  prosperity  through  good  international  relations  — 
a  formula  now  in  common  use.  The  American  "  Inter 
national  Conciliation"  branch,  founded  by  him  in  the 


338  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

United  States,  is  of  greater  importance  than  all  the  others 
combined,  as  it  has  nearly  a  hundred  thousand  supporters 
belonging  to  the  best  class  throughout  the  country,  and 
it  is  in  touch  with  similar  associations  in  Germany,  Great 
Britain,  Japan  and  other  countries.  He  was  chosen  by 
Andrew  Carnegie,  at  the  same  time  as  Elihu  Root  was 
selected,  to  be  one  of  the  guiding  spirits  in  his  colossal 
peace  institution.  For  several  years  in  succession  he  pre 
sided  over  the  much-discussed  International  Arbitration 
Conferences  at  Lake  Mohonk,  and  every  one  of  his  opening 
speeches  was  a  political  pronouncement  that  might  cer 
tainly  have  been  contrary  to  the  opinions  of  more  than  one 
family  among  his  pupils.  The  latter  have  none  the  less 
steadily  increased  in  number,  as  have  the  donations  made 
to  his  university.  He  and  many  other  educationalists  who 
work  with  him  have  contributed  greatly  towards  the  evo 
lution  of  American  public  spirit  in  the  well-defined  direction 
of  arbitration  and  conciliation. 

I  will  now  say  something  about  the  great  forum  at  Lake 
Mohonk  —  a  curious  institution  which  is,  I  believe,  unique 
in  the  world.  Side  by  side  with  the  university,  the  church 
and  foundations  of  all  kinds,  it  is  a  form  of  untrammeled 
education  in  the  United  States. 


2.   Lake  Mohonk.     The  Brothers  Smiley 

Lake  Mohonk  was  founded  by  two  Providence  school 
teachers  —  twins,  the  Smiley  brothers,  both  confirmed 
idealists.  Not  content  with  having  spent  their  lives,  up 
to  a  mature  age,  in  the  education  of  youth,  they  undertook 
to  instruct  opinion,  public  spirit,  the  Press  and  political 
parties.  They  were  inspired  by  the  idea  of  endowing  the 
United  States  with  a  forum  exclusively  for  the  advocacy 
of  great  ideas  and  great  causes.  They  began  by  making 
their  fortunes  and  killing  two  birds  with  one  stone.  First 


THE   IDEALISTIC   MOVEMENT  339 

of  all,  they  found  a  firm  basis  in  the  shape  of  an  attractive 
location  where  their  idea  could  take  root  and  extend  into 
the  infinite.  They  did  not  build  on  clouds,  but  on  a  rock, 
on  the  bank  of  a  deep  lake  of  pure  water,  amid  solitary 
cliffs,  far  enough  from  populous  centers  to  be  safe  from 
undesirable  visitors  and  yet  near  enough  to  form  a  meeting 
place  for  those  earnest  American  men  and  women  who,  like 
themselves,  had  an  ideal.  Would  that  I  had  time  to 
describe  this  delightful  place,  still  a  virgin  solitude,  where  all 
is  light,  silence  and  liberty !  And  yet  it  is  only  halfway 
between  New  York  and  the  state  capitol,  Albany,  but  the 
journey  is  complicated.  It  is  made  from  New  York,  either 
by  railroad  to  Poughkeepsie  or  by  one  of  the  splendid 
steamers  that  ply  on  the  Hudson  and  float  majestically 
like  swans  on  the  bosom  of  the  river,  past  rocks  and  woods. 
Opposite  Poughkeepsie  is  a  trolley  car  that  takes  you  into 
the  mountains  as  far  as  New  Paltz,  where  you  change 
into  a  comfortable  carriage  and  are  conveyed  to  Lake 
Mohonk.  This  is  the  approach  to  the  Catskill  Mountains. 
In  this  deep-seated  retreat,  left  undisturbed  by  human 
industry,  the  Smileys  made  their  way  to  the  heart  of  forest 
and  lake  and  traced  out  an  immense  and  impenetrable 
domain,  which  they  acquired  partly  out  of  their  savings 
and  partly  by  raising  loans.  They  built  excellent  roads  all 
leading  to  the  central  point,  and  there,  halfway  up  and 
hanging  over  the  transparent  turquoise  waters  of  the  lake, 
they  built  —  what?  A  Swiss  hotel. 

The  Lake  Cure 

"What  a  piece  of  vandalism !"  I  hear  someone  exclaim. 
Not  at  all.  It  was  foresight  amounting  to  genius.  The  two 
teachers  realized  that  their  countrymen  could  not  always 
live  in  a  state  of  hustle  and  overwork,  and  that  they  would 
need  quiet  and  rest.  In  this  way  began  what  has  now  be- 


34°  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

come  a  fashion,  like  going  to  the  Italian  lakes  —  the  "cure" 
among  the  lakes  that  form  the  greatest  natural  beauty  of 
the  northwest  part  of  the  United  States,  and  especially  to 
the  north,  between  the  White  Mountains  and  the  Green 
Mountains  and  as  far  as  the  Canadian  frontier.  No 
motor  cars  are  allowed  in  Lake  Mohonk  Park.  There  is 
no  dust,  no  smell  of  gasoline  and  no  noise.  A  vigilant 
gatekeeper,  at  the  far-off  entrance,  keeps  out  intruders. 
Alcohol  is  not  allowed  inside.  Sobriety  is  the  rule  in  the 
house,  but  the  food  is  very  good  and  well  served.  A  post 
and  telegraph  office,  a  supply  of  daily  newspapers,  a  very 
large  concert  and  lecture  hall,  a  library,  reading  and  writ 
ing  rooms  are  on  the  premises,  and  outside  the  front  door 
are  breaks  and  carriages  of  all  kinds  to  take  you  into  the 
mountains  or  to  the  golf  course,  and  tennis  courts  nearer  at 
hand.  At  the  lakeside  there  are  plenty  of  boats  for  rowing, 
and  swimming.  This  sanatorium  for  healthy  people  — 
quite  a  northern  oasis  —  became  such  a  success  that  the 
hotel  soon  had  to  be  enlarged  to  four  times  its  size  in  every 
direction,  —  height,  breadth  and  length,  —  and  it  can  now 
accommodate  five  or  six  hundred  travelers.  The  Smiley s 
had  made  their  fortune.  They  took  advantage  of  it,  not 
to  enjoy  themselves  but  to  realize  their  ideal. 

Debating  Great  Ideas 

Twice  a  year  their  secretary  draws  up  a  list  of  persons 
interested  in  some  great  cause,  and  twice  a  year  these  per 
sons  are  invited  to  meet  in  the  solitudes  of  Lake  Mohonk, 
a  week  before  the  hotel  opens  at  the  end  of  May,  or  after 
it  closes  in  September.  All  Americans  and  foreigners  who 
are  known  to  have  rendered  service  to  international  arbi 
tration,  and  whom  the  best  journalists  of  the  country  are 
anxious  to  meet,  are  thus  invited,  five  or  six  months  in 
advance,  to  come  and  spend  four  or  five  days  with  Messrs. 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  341 

Smiley.  On  the  appointed  date,  carriages  are  waiting  for 
them  at  the  little  mountain  railroad  station,  New  Paltz, 
whence  a  fast  drive  of  a  little  more  than  an  hour  takes  them 
to  the  hotel ;  and  then  begins  a  delightful  period  of  retire 
ment  from  the  world  —  a  conspiracy  of  earnest  people  who 
need  to  know  one  another,  to  combine  and  to  give  mutual 
instruction  and  encouragement.  All  their  energies,  instead 
of  being  wasted  on  isolated  attempts,  constitute  a  force, 
with  the  public  authorities,  the  Press  and  public  opinion  on 
its  side  instead  of  against  it.  One  of  the  brothers  Smiley 
died,  leaving  the  other,  to  take  part  in  the  labors  of  the  con 
ference  and,  together  with  his  family,  to  extend  a  benev 
olent  welcome  to  their  guests.  He  has  recently  died, 
leaving  an  excellent  will,  by  which  he  bequeathed  not  only 
his  fortune  but  his  program  to  his  descendants. 

Supporting  Great  Causes 

When  we  remember  that  this  platform  is  available  every 
year  to  workers  who  are  engaged  in  various  forms  of  effort 
but  are  all  enlisted  in  the  service  of  the  same  ideal,  and 
are  fighting,  not  without  courage  and  great  disinterested 
ness,  in  the  United  States,  against  egoism  in  all  its  forms, 
and  for  negro  education,  protection  of  Indians,  and,  in  fact, 
all  just  causes,  it  must  be  admitted  that  a  pilgrimage  to 
Lake  Mohonk  is  very  tempting.  I  made  this  pilgrimage 
and  came  back  filled  with  emotion  and  gratitude.  I  would 
like  to  be  able  to  accept  the  invitation  to  go  to  Lake  Mo- 
honk  with  my  family  every  year.  Once  more  I  return  to 
my  work  richer  in  hope  and  more  convinced  than  ever  in 
the  ultimate  triumph  of  our  so-called  illusions.  This  is  a 
triumph  that  never  will  be,  and  ought  not  to  be,  complete, 
because  we  need  to  wage  continual  conflicts  and  overcome 
obstacles  to  bring  us  nearer  to  the  summit,  which  we  shall 
never  reach  because  it  rises  with  us. 


34 2  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

The  gathering  at  Lake  Mohonk  is  not  a  pacifist  one.  It 
was  in  no  way  identical,  for  instance,  with  the  peace  con 
gress  that  met  a  few  weeks  earlier  at  Baltimore.  I  have 
said  nothing  about  this  assembly,  because  these  congresses 
are  all  alike,  and  it  is  quite  exceptional  for  me  to  attend  any 
of  them.  Every  one  must  play  his  own  part,  and  I  am  led 
by  experience,  good  or  bad,  in  the  course  of  my  career, 
and  by  my  parliamentary  responsibility,  to  encourage  all 
worthy  forms  of  initiative  as  far  as  possible,  but  to  take 
part  only  in  those  that  strike  me  not  merely  as  desirable, 
but  as  likely  to  produce  results  in  the  near  future.  I  say 
this  less  as  a  philanthropist  than  as  a  statesman,  in  the 
interest  of  my  own  country  and  every  country.  Lake 
Mohonk  is  a  concentration  point  where  practical  men, 
business  men,  bankers  and  statesmen  meet  philanthropists. 
What  harm  is  there  in  this?  On  the  contrary,  is  it  not 
desirable  that  incompatibility  should  not  be  established 
between  morality  and  politics?  and  that  a  patriot  should 
be  allowed  to  be  a  pacifist  just  as  a  pacifist  gives  his  life 
for  a  principle?  None  of  the  misunderstandings  with 
which  we  are  acquainted  in  Europe  exist  on  the  peace  ques 
tion  at  Lake  Mohonk.  The  great  majority  of  the  country 
has  made  up  its  mind  to  have  peace,  and,  under  these  cir 
cumstances,  how  are  people  to  be  expected  not  to  discuss 
means  for  organizing  it?  How  is  the  national  foreign 
policy,  which  affects  every  citizen's  pocket,  to  be  withheld 
from  public  debate  ?  How  can  people  fail  to  be  interested 
in  the  demands  of  national  defense,  the  colonies,  military 
'and  naval  expenditure,  superdreadnoughts  treaties  with 
foreign  countries,  the  Panama  Canal,  and  so  on?  All 
these  subjects  are  of  the  highest  interest  to  the  educators 
of  the  country,  and  Americans,  who  have  very  little  con 
ception  of  the  historical  and  geographical  difficulties  that 
beset  us  in  Europe,  can  understand  neither  our  scruples 
nor  our  perplexities  in  this  order  of  ideas.  At  Lake  Mohonk 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  343 

and  elsewhere  I  have  heard  debates  on  a  theory  now 
generally  accepted  which  originated  at  Pittsburgh  —  that 
outdoor  sports  are  the  moral  equivalent  of  war  from  the 
educational  point  of  view,  and  that  such  sports  develop 
the  warlike  virtues  which  are  themselves  the  natural  com 
plement  of  well-organized  peace.  Americans  are  far  from 
wanting  to  degenerate.  They  mean  to  fortify  themselves 
and  make  themselves  invincible  by  peace.  They  are  a 
long  way  from  relapsing  into  the  inferior  enjoyments  of  a 
temporary  security  or  the  pleasures  of  Capua;  but  they 
realize  that  war  is  no  longer  a  sport,  or  is  becoming  too 
abnormal  and  expensive  a  sport  to  be  modern.  They  are 
convinced  that  young  men,  accustomed  from  their  earliest 
childhood  to  the  voluntary  discipline,  endurance,  self- 
possession,  agility  and  prompt  decision  required  by  out 
door  sports,  will  be  well  prepared  to  defend  their  country  in 
case  of  need.  All  they  would  have  to  learn  would  be  to  use  a 
rifle  and  adopt  military  discipline.  In  this  way  Americans 
not  only  avoid  neutralizing  part  of  the  national  wealth  and 
strength,  but  help  to  develop  them,  so  that  the  country  can 
utilize  the  full  extent  of  its  resources  whenever  necessary. 

The  Lake  Mohonk  lectures  on  arbitration  and  against 
the  constantly  increasing  claims  of  armed  peace  constitute 
the  clearest  and  most  positive  teaching  to  be  found  in  the 
United  States. 

3.    The  Education  of  Political  Parties.     Political  Classifi 
cations 

It  is  the  same  with  the  Lake  Mohonk  addresses  against 
drink  and  with  the  examples  of  tolerance  in  favor  of  the 
Jews  and  of  the  oppressed  of  all  kinds.  It  can  doubtless 
be  said  of  every  one  of  these  problems  that  its  settlement 
is  chimerical,  but  there  is  not  one  that  we  are  entitled  to 
neglect.  The  Lake  Mohonk  idealists  are  therefore  justified 


344  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

in  discussing  these  matters,  and  their  great  merit  is  to 
provide  the  various  political  parties  with  material  for  their 
platforms  out  of  the  debates,  which  are  correctly  reported 
or  summarized  in  all  the  papers.  Lake  Mohonk  is  a  reser 
voir  of  ideas,  and  those  that  have  stood  the  test  of  debate, 
and  have  filtered  through,  circulate  throughout  the  coun 
try  and  are  to  be  found  in  the  programs  of  all  parties. 

Contributing  to  the  education  of  the  various  political 
parties,  improving  their  organizations  and  especially  their 
methods,  renewing  their  ideals  and  putting  emulation  in 
the  place  of  indifference  to  great  questions,  seems  to  me  to 
constitute  a  very  great  service,  all  the  more  essential  as  the 
country  is  more  disturbed.  Ten  years  ago,  the  peaceful 
settlement  of  international  conflicts  was  not  included  in 
any  definite  program.  The  organization  of  arbitration 
is  now  an  electoral  platform,  quite  as  much  for  the  Progres 
sives  and  Republicans  as  for  the  Democrats.  Mr.  W.  J. 
Bryan  came  to  Lake  Mohonk  in  support  of  this  organiza 
tion  as  the  leader,  at  that  time,  of  the  Democratic  party. 
Mr.  Roosevelt  justly  claims  the  honor  of  having  shown 
the  way  to  others.  Mr  Taft  has  gone  still  further.  As 
for  the  Socialists,  their  protests  cover  the  whole  question. 

A  process  of  intense  electoral  ferment  is  going  on  in  the 
United  States.  The  two  great  historical  parties,  Demo 
cratic  and  Republican,  no  longer  suffice.  The  dissatisfied, 
the  credulous  and  the  impatient  are  camping  out  to  the 
right  and  left  of  the  old  parties,  each  of  which  has  its  part 
to  play,  one  being  the  brake  and  the  other  the  whip.  This 
evolution  is  about  the  same  in  all  parliamentary  countries. 
Economic  and  social  questions  have  upset  the  positions  of 
the  parties,  which  were  more  or  less  weakened  by  holding 
office,  as  well  as  by  the  ambition  and  failings  of  individuals, 
and  were  more  or  less  divided  against  themselves  by  serious 
conflicts  of  interest  between  different  districts.  There  is 
now  a  greater  distance  between  rival  members  of  one  party 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  345 

than  there  is  between  the  principles  advocated  by  two 
opposing  parties.  Certain  essential  principles,  such  as  free 
trade  in  England,  are  common  to  two  sections  of  two  oppos 
ing  parties  and  are  supported  jointly  by  these  sections 
against  the  rest  of  their  parties.  The  titles  of  these  parties 
thus  no  longer  correspond  to  reality,  and  the  result  is  a 
state  of  confusion  which  is  wearying  public  opinion,  just  as 
deceit  on  the  part  of  a  child  annoys  its  elders.  Personally 
I  decline  to  accept  the  classification  of  American  parties 
without  examination,  just  as  I  ask  Americans  not  to  judge 
us  Europeans  by  labels  varying  in  meaning  according  to 
latitude  and  circumstances.  A  Radical  in  the  south  of 
France  is  often  more  conservative  than  a  moderate  Repub 
lican  in  the  north.  Some  of  our  Radical-Socialists  are 
militarists  and  megalomaniacs,  and  it  is  the  same  with 
some  of  the  new  English  Radicals  and  with  more  than  one 
American  Democrat.  It  is  therefore  natural  that  the  elec 
torate,  not  knowing  how  the  land  lies,  should  want  some 
thing  new,  and  that  their  feeling  of  disappointment  should 
encourage  overbidding  for  their  support;  but  this  state 
of  disquiet  does  not  at  present  imply  anything  undesirable 
for  the  future  of  the  United  States,  and  is,  on  the  con 
trary,  a  good  sign,  inasmuch  as  it  stimulates  energy. 

Misleading  Names 

The  fact  is  that  all  the  old  parties  —  Whigs  and  Tories, 
Liberals  and  Conservatives  —  are  compelled  to  come 
closer,  not  to  absorb  one  another,  but  to  unite  so  as  to 
make  the  greatest  or  smallest  possible  number  of  conces 
sions  to  popular  claims ;  but  the  maximum  is  never  any 
thing  more  than  a  beginning.  They  represent  the  unpopu 
lar  status  quo  and,  for  the  time  being,  defend  it,  whether 
they  like  it  or  not.  They  constitute  a  natural  center  of 
resistance  much  more  than  of  action  —  a  center  of  modera- 


346  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

tion  and  opportunism  with  whose  slow  progress  impatient 
humanity  must  put  up.  It  is,  in  short,  a  center  —  a  word 
that  sums  up  the  whole  situation.  This  center  nevertheless 
obtained  ten  out  of  fifteen  million  votes  immediately  after 
a  fierce  electoral  struggle  in  the  United  States,  and  it  might 
further  reckon  on  the  future  support  of  a  large  number  of 
the  dissident  Republicans  who  followed  President  Roose 
velt  in  all  good  faith.  These  ten  millions  consist  of  6,500,000 
Democrats  and  3,500,000  Republicans.  The  two  unequal 
portions  of  this  center,  being  always  in  a  state  of  uncertain 
equilibrium,  in  the  United  States  as  elsewhere,  will  have 
to  come  to  an  understanding  and  make  their  respective 
supporters  agree  to  unpleasant  sacrifices  and  give  up  many 
positions  and  personal  advantages.  On  this  condition  they 
may  look  forward  to  a  useful  career  and  the  accomplish 
ment  of  a  set  of  ideal  reforms,  beginning  with  the  complete 
abolition  of  the  too-celebrated  bosses,  or  corruption  com 
mittees,  already  condemned  by  legislation  under  the  pres 
sure  of  public  opinion.  After  this,  and  above  all,  come  the 
development  of  education  in  all  its  forms  and  in  all  direc 
tions,  the  study  of  new  problems  at  home  and  abroad,  and 
the  improvement  of  economic  and  social  conditions  through 
out  the  country,  in  and  through  a  properly  understood, 
well-organized  and  assured  peace.  Only  by  this  policy  will 
the  center  exist.  It  will  triumph  if  it  places  the  interest  of 
the  country  before  the  claims  of  its  coteries,  and  wise  and 
well-considered  reforms  before  routine  and  election  promises. 
Otherwise,  if  it  hesitates  and  fails  to  muster  up  sufficient 
courage  to  take  firm  ground  between  quagmire  and  preci 
pice,  and  if  it  tries  to  flatter  both  sides,  its  action  will  be  no 
better  than  make-believe  or  caricature  and  merely  justify 
the  existence  of  the  extremist  parties. 

Neither  of  these  parties  deserves  to  be  treated  as  of  little 
account,  because  their  support  comes  from  the  same  class 
—  the  discontented,  many  of  whom  are  perfectly  sincere. 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  347 

The  Dissatisfied  Rich  and  Poor 

There  are  two  very  distinct  sections  among  the  dis 
contented  :  the  rich  and  the  poor.  There  is  a  great  gulf 
fixed  between  them,  but  some  accidental  circumstance 
might  easily  make  them  combine  in  some  sudden  and  mis 
taken  course.  The  center  constructs,  not  very  well,  but 
still  it  constructs  ;  the  two  extremes  want  to  construct  also, 
but  for  the  time  being,  destruction  is  the  only  point  on 
which  they  agree.  This  union  of  adventurousness  and 
anarchy  has  always  borne  the  same  fruit :  revolution. 

The  wealthy  discontented  are  the  same  everywhere,  and 
it  matters  little  how  they  are  styled  —  jingoes,  plebisci- 
taires,  pronunciamientists,  partisans  of  personal  power,  of 
a  military  dictatorship  and  finally  of  war.  We  may  call 
them  Pan-Germans,  Imperialists,  Panslavists,  Panhellenists, 
Boulangists,  Derouledists  or  Rooseveltites,  but  as  a  matter 
of  fact  they  are  all  alike.  In  the  United  States  they  have 
reckoned  up  their  forces  for  the  first  time  —  after  making 
due  allowance,  as  I  have  said,  for  those  who  were  tem 
porarily  led  away  —  and  they  attained  a  total  of  four 
millions  out  of  fifteen  millions  of  voters.  This  is  an  im 
pressive  figure,  but  should  not  be  taken  too  seriously,  be 
cause,  in  spite  of  its  demagogue  appearance  and  of  the 
elements  of  violence  which  are  poisoning  it,  the  new  party, 
known  as  the  Progressive,  is  nevertheless,  as  a  whole, 
deserving  of  respect  as  an  indication  of  the  idealistic  and 
moral  yearnings  of  the  United  States.  It  has  been  de 
scribed  as  exploiting  idealism  and  indiscriminately  promis 
ing  to  satisfy  all  the  generous  desires  of  the  country. 

The  Center  between  the  two  Wings 

As  for  Socialism,  it  is  a  party  of  destruction  and  of 
promises,  and  this  is  its  weakness  rather  than  its  strength. 


348  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

It  implies  war  on  opportunism  and  war  on  capitalism,  but 
it  is  war  all  the  same.  Can  this  be  a  new  religion  ?  If  so, 
it  would  have  the  support  of  the  men  and  women  —  and 
they  are  innumerable  in  this  country  —  who  aspire  after 
better  things;  but  in  reality  it  is  simply  another  form  of 
hatred,  and  this  is  what  Americans  do  not  want.  It  is  not 
a  remedy  but  a  danger  for  a  young  nation  in  search  of 
unity.  Complaints  would  be  listened  to,  but  hatred  is 
feared.  Women  seem  to  me  to  be  better  organized  than 
Socialists  in  the  United  States,  and  they  have  succeeded 
better.  Why?  Because  they  have  abstained  from  nega 
tive  or  indefinite  grievances,  and  brought  their  efforts  to 
bear  on  certain  definite  points,  such  as  the  drink  traffic, 
education,  the  protection  of  children,  hygiene,  etc. 

Comparative  Weakness  of  Socialism 

The  Socialists  realize  their  numerical  inferiority.  Their 
candidate,  Mr.  Debs,  did  not  obtain  more  than  a  million 
votes  in  all.  This  was  more  than  at  the  previous  election, 
but  there  again  we  must  look  at  the  facts  behind  the  figures. 
I  dined  with  the  principal  Socialist  leaders  in  New  York,  at 
their  club,  which  profits,  like  every  other  institution,  by  un 
limited  toleration  from  the  universities  and,  consequently, 
from  public  spirit,  and  is  situated  in  one  of  the  Columbia 
University  buildings.  The  Socialists  have  to  admit  that 
the  frontiers  of  their  party  are  not  easy  to  define.  They 
are  not  supported  even  by  the  labor  unions,  who  mistrust 
politicians.  The  result  is  that  a  great  many  workers 
escape  from  their  influence.  (I  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
all  the  poor  are  on  one  side  and  all  the  rich  on  the  other. 
I  know  some  wealthy  Socialists,  and  my  own  attempts  at 
classification  are  no  more  perfect  than  those  of  the  parties 
themselves.)  The  fact  is  that  the  Socialists  are  a  rather 
indeterminate  party.  They  are  not  even  supported  by 


THE   IDEALISTIC   MOVEMENT  349 

the  intellectuals  who,  as  a  whole,  want  to  carry  on  their 
work  in  peace.  Moreover,  they  (the  Socialists)  cannot 
help  admitting  that,  in  this  new  country,  where  new  forms 
of  progress  spring  out  of  the  earth  every  day,  a  great  deal 
had  been  accomplished  before  they  were  heard  of  and  with 
out  their  assistance.  What  reason  is  there,  then,  for  ex 
perimenting  with  their  form  of  government?  Their  pro 
gram  is  necessarily  still  more  indefinite  than  the  boundaries 
of  their  political  domain.  They  encounter  prejudice  and 
they  meet  with  insurmountable  obstacles.  They,  and  they 
especially,  meet  the  difficulty  by  adopting  idealistic  re 
forms,  wherein  they,  like  other  parties,  can  exert  a  salutary 
and  moral  influence  —  which  accounts  for  a  great  deal  of 
the  support  they  have  obtained.  "We  are  idealists  first 
and  foremost,"  one  of  their  leaders  told  me.  "What  we 
want  our  country  to  have  is  a  peaceful  future  that  will  add 
to  the  national  wealth  and  make  it  of  service  to  the  whole 
community  instead  of  to  the  privileged  few.  We  want  a 
better  system  of  education,  although  we  admit  that  a  great 
deal  has  been  done  to  educate  the  people  all  over  the  United 
States.  Our  program  consists  of  developing  the  national 
wealth  and  morality,  two  words  that  are  one  to  our  minds. 
We  are  so  idealistic  that  our  friends  in  Australia,  New  Zea 
land  and  the  Cape  come  to  us  for  inspiration  rather  than 
to  Europe." 

What  difference  is  there  between  these  aspirations  and 
the  most  unselfish  ideals  in  all  countries  ? 

One  obstacle  to  the  practical  application  of  Socialism  in 
the  United  States  is  the  existence,  side  by  side,  of  too  many 
different  languages,  races  and  religions.  It  is  difficult  for 
Socialism  to  effect  a  combination  of  so  many  heterogeneous 
elements  that  are  already  divided  among  themselves. 
They  are  so  many  Towers  of  Babel  which  can  be  more  or 
less  effectively  held  together  only  by  the  national  ambition 
to  be  a  great  people.  It  is  difficult,  for  instance,  for  Social- 


350  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

istic  propaganda  to  bring  about  a  definite  rapprochement 
between  the  negro  workman  and  the  white  workman. 
An  antagonism  carried  to  the  point  of  incompatibility 
exists  between  them,  and  is  so  pronounced  that  many 
employers  provide  against  possible  strikes  by  keeping  gangs 
of  negroes  ready  to  take  the  place  of  the  whites  and  break 
up  the  movement.  How,  moreover,  can  any  effective  in 
fluence  be  exerted,  over  immense  distances,  on  a  crowd  of 
foreign  workmen  —  Germans,  Poles,  Italians,  Greeks  and 
so  on  —  who  do  not  speak  the  language  of  the  country, 
cannot  get  on  with  one  another,  and  hold  to  their  old  tra 
ditions  of  antagonism?  We  know  how  fiercely  the  union 
workmen  in  California  opposed  competition  from  yellow 
labor.  If  Socialism  is  consistent,  it  will  hold  out  its  hand 
to  the  Chinese,  Japanese,  negro  and  other  competitors  of 
the  American  workman ;  and  if  it  rejects  them  and  treats 
them  as  outcasts,  what  becomes  of  its  doctrine  ?  We  have 
also  to  take  into  account  the  glaring  mistakes  whereby 
Socialism  damages  its  credit.  But  the  real  weakness  of 
Socialism,  to  my  mind,  lies  in  the  activity  of  public  spirit, 
which  never  leaves  the  Socialists  a  clear  field  and  gives 
them  no  opening.  Another  is  the  wisdom  of  the  two  great 
parties,  Republican  and  Democrat,  which,  though  they 
spend  a  great  deal  too  much  money  on  preparations  for  a 
war  that  nobody  wants,  are  nevertheless  pacific.  If,  un 
fortunately,  an  outburst  of  jingoism  occurred  and  the  gov 
ernment  became  militarized,  the  Socialist  vote  would 
double,  as  we  have  seen  in  Germany.  There  are  still  many 
other  obstacles:  the  ardent  spirit  of  industry  that  ani 
mates  the  whole  country,  the  lack  of  idlers,  the  women,  to 
whom  I  have  already  referred,  the  children,  even  the 
wealthy  who  are  anxious  to  do  useful  work,  and  the  numer 
ous  philanthropic  institutions,  which  are  becoming  the  rule 
and  not  the  exception.  The  people  know  well,  for  instance, 
how  greatly  they  benefit  by  all  these  educational  founda- 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  351 

tions,  and  this  consideration  alone  is  enough  to  prevent 
them  from  pronouncing  wholesale  condemnation  of  an 
organization  that  has  produced  such  results  and  is  opening 
up  the  future  for  them. 

Socialism  has  less  hold  on  the  United  States  than  else 
where  because  it  cannot  have  a  program,  because  the  pop 
ulation  is  small,  scattered,  varied,  divided  and  not  yet 
acclimatized,  and  especially  because  it  has  to  cope  with 
too  many  philanthropists. 

4.    The  Indians 

Of  much  more  seriousness  than  the  future  of  Socialism 
in  the  United  States  is  the  negro  question  and,  morally, 
the  Indian  question.  The  Socialists  would  be  in  a  consid 
erable  quandary  if  they  had  to  solve  these  two  problems  in 
accordance  with  their  own  principles.  Here,  as  elsewhere, 
the  purest  idealism  must  reckon  with  facts,  and  the  far 
from  cheerful  saying,  "  Reason  is  not  all-powerful,  and  has 
to  endure  what  it  cannot  prevent,"  finds  its  application. 
It  is  much  to  the  credit  of  the  brothers  Smiley  that  they 
included  these  two  questions  in  their  program.  To  be 
quite  exact,  they  began  with  the  Indians  even  before  they 
founded  their  hotel.  The  first  of  these  Indian  conferences 
dates  back  to  1883,  and  they  have  since  been  continued 
every  year  and  have  brought  together  the  best  of  America's 
generals,  savants,  clergy  and  publicists.  As  their  un 
doubted  efficacy  became  known,  they  extended  their  sphere 
of  action.  They  were  consistently  opposed  to  the  doctrine 
of  domination  and  especially  to  that  of  exterminating  the 
natives.  In  its  place  they  urged  that  there  should  be  edu 
cation  and  cooperation  in  the  Hawaiian  islands,  Porto 
Rico  and  the  Philippines  just  as  much  as  in  the  interior  of 
the  United  States.  This  spontaneous  activity  has  pro 
duced  incalculable  benefit,  which  came  too  late,  but  was 


35  2  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

eminently  practical,  if  we  consider  the  irreparable  mistakes 
they  enabled  governments  to  avoid  and  the  germs  of 
hatred  and  revenge  whose  propagation  they  prevented. 

American  Impatience 

The  merit  of  the  work  was  in  proportion  to  the  prejudice 
that  had  to  be  overcome.  I  find  that  the  best  and  most 
open-minded  friends  of  mine  are  still  skeptical  on  one  ques 
tion  alone  —  the  future  of  the  Indian,  and  the  negroes. 
They  have  no  belief  in  the  "good  Indian."  They  abide 
by  one  of  those  Voltairean  expressions  into  which  a  mis 
taken  conception,  generally  accepted  over  a  long  period  of 
years,  is  cleverly  condensed ;  they  agree  with  General  Sher 
man  that  "the  good  Indian  was  a  dead  Indian."  There  is 
certainly  no  lack  of  vices  laid  to  the  Indians'  charge  - 
idleness,  drunkenness,  debauchery  and  so  on.  For  over 
twenty  years  I  have  heard  this  kind  of  thing.  Subse 
quently,  at  Lake  Mohonk  and  elsewhere,  a  very  different 
tone  greeted  my  ears.  The  only  views  I  will  quote  are 
those  of  statesmen. 


History  of  Colonization.    French  and  English 

Mr.  Elihu  Root,  for  instance,  speaking  at  the  Champlain 
tricentenary  celebration  in  1909,  attributed  the  final 
triumph  of  the  English  principally  to  the  fact  that  they 
had  *the  assistance  of  the  Iroquois,  —  that  is  to  say,  the 
largest  and  most  powerful  tribe,  —  while  France,  in  spite  of 
her  heroes,  took  the  side  of  the  Hurons. 

He  goes,  in  fact,  too  far  when  he  considers  that  of  only  sec 
ondary  importance  were  the  repeated  failures  of  Louis  XV's 
government  to  support  the  French  cause  and  the  jealousy 
and  dissensions  that  led  to  and  accentuated  these  failures 
and  paralyzed  our  pioneers.  We  were  beaten,  not  by  the 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  353 

Hurons'  weakness,  but  by  that  of  our  governments.  There 
is  no  need  to  look  elsewhere  for  the  explanation.  In  any 
case,  Elihu  Root  recognizes  the  immense  value  of  the 
services  the  Indians  rendered  to  civilization,  and  he  con 
firms  what  we  know  from  correspondence  of  the  period, 
not  to  mention  Fenimore  Cooper  and  Francis  Parkman. 
All  testimony  goes  to  show  that  while  the  Indians  had  their 
faults,  their  greatest  offense  was  that  of  clinging  to  an 
obsolete  style  of  existence.  Have  they  been  allowed  to  live 
in  any  other  way?  They  have  been  gradually  eliminated, 
together  with  their  hunting  grounds,  their  prairies,  their 
forests  and  their  game,  but  their  numbers  have  been  re 
duced  first  and  foremost  by  internecine  warfare.  Another 
reason  for  their  dying  out  is  that  the  United  States  govern 
ment  not  only  opposed  them,  —  as  it  was  more  or  less  com 
pelled  to  do  in  retaliation  or  through  the  inevitable  con 
sequences  of  accomplished  facts,  —  but  never  made  real 
and  acceptable  peace  with  them.  It  compelled  these 
nomads  to  remain  in  reserved  territories,  it  gave  them 
neither  time  nor  means  to  settle  down  and  moved  them 
on  from  time  to  time,  like  flocks  of  sheep,  farther  and 
farther  from  their  homes.  Instead  of  estimating  their 
possible  services  in  the  future  by  the  power  of  resistance 
they  had  shown  in  the  past,  and  instead  of  utilizing  this 
force,  the  government  preferred  to  destroy  it.  It  was  all 
very  well  to  defeat  and  conquer  them,  but  was  it  neces 
sary  to  condemn  them  to  extermination  as  well?  Why? 
Because  governments  are  weak  enough  to  give  way  to  jingo 
pressure,  and  because,  no  doubt,  a  handful  of  adventurers 
who  wanted  to  rob  the  Indian  had  only  to  accuse  him 
of  being  a  national  enemy;  and  because  it  was  more 
difficult  to  combat  American  impatience  then  to  de 
stroy  the  Indians :  to  stop  and  make  the  effort  nec 
essary  to  conciliate  them.  The  Americans,  who  have 
accomplished  many  more  difficult  feats  than  this,  have 

2A 


354  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

none  the  less  failed  to  help  the  Indians  change  their 
existence  so  as  to  conform  to  the  change  in  their  country. 
The  Indians  were  left  to  live  in  a  state  of  idleness,  badly 
clothed,  badly  fed  and  housed,  with  no  hope  and  no  pur 
pose,  drink-sodden  and  sick,  with  dwindling  numbers, 
marrying  only  among  themselves  and  doomed  to  degenerate 
and  die  out.  They  were  regarded  merely  as  an  obstacle, 
an  object  of  fear  for  some  and  of  curiosity  and  exhibition 
for  others.  The  same  problem  still  exists  in  all  European 
colonies,  and  deserves  reflection.  If  we  had  followed  our 
baser  instincts  in  Tunis  only  thirty  years  ago,  we  should 
have  tried  to  reduce  the  natives  to  the  condition  of  Red 
Indians.1  It  is  easier  to  exterminate  or  degrade  a  people 
than  to  educate  it,  but  when  it  has  to  be  replaced,  we 
begin  to  see  that  there  might  have  been  worse,  and  we 
regret  its  loss.  There  is  no  proof  that,  with  the  exercise  of 
a  little  patience  and  credit,  a  source  of  strength  and  beauty 
could  not  have  been  extracted  from  the  Indians.  The  mis 
takes  that  excluded  French  influence  from  the  development 
of  the  New  World  and  placed  its  future  under  the  influence 
of  the  English  language  and  the  exclusive  control  of  the 
European  immigrant  have  perhaps  caused  civilization  to 
lose  the  benefit  of  an  experiment  which  deserved  to  be 
made  and  which,  for  the  first  time,  might  have  been  made 
under  extremely  favorable  conditions  —  a  trial  of  Du- 
pleix's  system  of  government  with  the  assistance  of  the 
natives,  the  latter  having  a  share  in  the  government  of 
their  country.  The  native  in  this  case  was  neither  the 
negro,  nor  the  Chinese,  nor  the  Arab,  nor  the  fanatic  more 
or  less  inimical  to  the  white  race;  it  was  the  white  race 
itself,  or  at  least  —  as  science  is  uncertain  on  this  point  — 
one  of  the  finest  possible  types.  It  was  no  doubt  addicted 
to  idolatry  and  hostile  to  contradictory  conversions  by  our 

1  See  "La  Politique  Frangaise  en  Tunisie,"  by  the  same  author.     Plon, 
Paris,  1891. 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  355 

Protestant  and  Catholic  missionaries,  but  it  was  none  the 
less  genuine  metal  which  only  needed  the  alloy  of  a  higher 
civilization  to  become  refined  and  perhaps  finer  than  any 
other.  Most  of  the  reproaches  we  make  against  the  In 
dian  might  be  urged  against  ourselves.  Every  explorer 
has  expatiated  on  his  faithfulness,  which  they  had  proved, 
inasmuch  as  they  intrusted  themselves,  for  years,  to  the 
Indians;  but  explorers  were  followed  by  traders  and  con 
querors  by  speculators.  How  were  the  Indians  treated  in 
return  for  their  fidelity,  and  what  was  left  undone  to  de 
moralize  them?  The  fault,  which  is  only  a  question  of 
degrees,  was  general.  The  French,  and  especially  the 
English,  must  share  the  responsibility  with  the  Genoese, 
the  Spaniards  and  the  Portuguese,  who  were  the  first 
offenders,  acting,  as  they  did,  like  the  Turks  and  bar 
barians  whose  practices  were  a  monstrous  inheritance  from 
antiquity  and  its  spirit  of  domination,  slavery  and  muti 
lation.  We  know  how  physically  and  morally  fine  were 
the  innocent  peoples  who  threw  the  Antilles  open  to  Chris 
topher  Columbus  and  the  whole  of  the  New  World  to  the 
European  navigators,  as  far  distant  as  the  peaceful  islands 
of  the  ocean  called  Pacific,  and  we  know  how  savagely 
and  cruelly  all  these  races  were  destroyed  by  fire  and 
sword,  by  sickness,  by  the  torture  of  hard  labor  and  work 
in  the  gold  mines ;  how,  in  return  for  their  kindness,  we 
let  destruction  loose  upon  them,  slaughtering  men  and 
animals  alike,  burning  the  forests  and  depopulating  the 
land  as  far  as  the  ocean  and  the  polar  regions,  and  exhaust 
ing  all  the  sources  of  vitality.  Is  there  no  appeal  against 
this  law?  Will  the  history  of  European  colonization  be 
forever  made  up  of  three  periods,  more  or  less  prolonged 
but  invariable  —  heroic  efforts  first  of  all,  then  the  weaker 
race  mercilessly  exploited  by  the  stronger  and  finally  a  third 
period,  chastisement? 

I  have  often  thought  of  the  grief  and  shame  our  pioneers 


356  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

would  feel  if  they  could  come  to  life  again  and  see  how 
their  promises  have  been  kept,  and  if  they  could  see  how 
the  traces  they  left  have  been  swept  away.  Even  Dutch 
and  French  names  have  been  wiped  out  to  a  great  extent 
and  replaced  by  English,  under  the  influence  of  the  hostile 
feeling  prevailing  at  the  time.  Francis  Parkman  has 
pointed  out,  in  a  spirit  of  justice,  how  greatly  English  and 
French  colonization  differed.  The  Englishman  looks  upon 
the  Indians  as  intruders,  and  ignores  them  until  the  time 
comes  when  he  can  get  rid  of  them.  It  would  never  occur 
to  him  to  fraternize  with  them,  and  he  disposes  of  them 
quite  calmly.  The  Frenchman  regarded  the  Indians  as 
men,  as  auxiliaries  and  as  friends  whom  he  loved  and 
would  readily  admit  into  his  family.  The  English  have 
never  understood  or  liked  the  Indians,  and,  most  unfor 
tunately,  the  Americans  have  long  followed  their  example. 
I  am  told  that  this  misfortune  was  unavoidable ;  without 
trying  to  find  excuses  for  official  harshness  or  bad  faith, 
could  the  English  be  compelled  to  like  anybody? 

Spaniards  and  Puritans 

It  is  true  that  the  Spaniards  managed  to  populate  Peru 
with  half-breeds  born  of  their  unions  with  native  women. 
This  is  a  matter  of  temperament,  and  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  these  mixed  races  constitute  any  advantage  to  civi 
lization.  But  there  is  another  and  a  serious  question  to  con 
sider.  The  position  of  the  Spaniards  in  the  south  was 
quite  different  from  that  of  the  English  in  the  north.  The 
Spaniards  were  attracted  to  Peru  solely  by  a  golden  bait. 
They  went  there  without  their  wives  and  families,  they 
were  not  overburdened  with  scruples,  and  they  attached  no 
importance  to  temporary  unions.  The  English  Puritans, 
on  the  other  hand,  left  their  country  to  escape  persecution. 
They  were  in  pursuit  of  an  ideal.  They  gave  up  every- 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  357 

thing  for  the  sake  of  their  beliefs,  which  they  affirmed  and 
strengthened  by  leaving  their  native  land  in  a  body  for 
perpetual  exile.  They  embarked  upon  the  foundation  of 
another  world,  which  they  hoped  would  be  better  than  the 
old  one.  They  were  accompanied  by  their  families,  and 
they  took  with  them  all  their  stern  moral  integrity,  their 
pride  of  race  and  Anglo-Saxon  hauteur.  There  would  have 
been  an  end  to  their  lineage,  and  it  would  have  been  im 
possible  to  gratify  their  ambition,  had  they  mingled  with 
the  natives.  Instead  of  attracting  their  own  countrymen 
to  follow  their  example,  both  they  and  their  principles 
would  have  been  more  or  less  submerged.  In  any  case, 
English  Puritanism  has  certainly  intensified  many  virtues 
inherited  by  the  United  States,  but  it  could  not  populate 
the  whole  of  America.  It  helped,  concurrently  with  the 
elimination  of  the  French  element,  to  arrest  the  intermin 
gling  of  Europeans  and  natives;  and  though  this  inter 
mingling  has  sometimes  given  indifferent  or  bad  results,  it 
has  also  produced  good  ones.  Facts  are  facts,  and  the 
beauty  of  a  race  is  the  result  of  qualities  established  ages 
ago.  Champlain's  contemporaries  agree  in  describing  the 
Hurons  as  fine  specimens  of  humanity.  Even  to-day  we 
see  Indians  as  handsome  as  types  of  antiquity,  with  profiles 
like  those  of  an  emperor  on  a  Roman  coin. 

Prairie  Ccesars 

These  prairie  Caesars  deserved  something  better  than  to 
be  treated  with  contempt  and  sentenced  without  being  tried. 
Their  rich  blood  would  have  regenerated  Europe's.  For 
tunately  (let  us  whisper  it) ,  a  good  many  of  the  condemned 
managed  to  soften  the  hearts  of  their  conquerors,  if  we  may 
judge  by  the  number  of  North  Americans  in  whose  veins 
there  is  unmistakably  Indian  blood.  Nature  will  out,  and 
it  is  not  by  mere  chance  or  imagination  that  we  see,  in  the 


358  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

eyes  of  so  many  young  American  athletes,  the  reflection  of  a 
past  dating  back  to  long  before  the  Puritans  reached  the  New 
World,  and  a  vague  longing  for  restoration  to  an  ancient 
status.  A  reaction,  in  fact,  has  begun  in  favor  of  the 
Indians,  just  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of  the  forests. 
Nothing  is  lost,  an  optimist  tells  me ;  and  the  Indians  have 
never  been  much  more  numerous  than  they  are  now.  A 
great  deal  was  heard  of  them  because  they  were  constantly 
fighting,  but  they  lived  in  widely  scattered  groups,  each  in 
constant  danger  of  being  wiped  out  by  another.  They 
now  total  about  400,000  in  the  territories  left  to  them,  until 
further  notice,  by  the  United  States.  It  may  be  that  their 
numbers  were  no  greater  a  couple  of  centuries  ago.  It  may 
also  be  that  they  will  cease  to  be  warriors  and  will  become 
farmers,  thus  taking  their  share  in  the  peaceful  and  laborious 
life  of  the  nation.  They  are  now  encouraged  in  this  direc 
tion,  thanks  to  the  manner  in  which  private  initiative  has 
reacted  against  the  previously  prevailing  sentiment.  They 
are  now  generally  looked  upon  as  a  healthier  and  richer 
factor  of  population  than  certain  emigrants  who  have  been 
driven  by  starvation  or  persecution  from  the  poorest  coun 
tries  of  the  East  to  seek  their  fortune  in  the  United  States. 

Before  long,  the  smallness  of  their  numbers  will  be  re 
gretted.  When  History  surveys  our  epoch  from  afar  and 
passes  judgment  upon  it,  what  will  she  say  about  the 
ravages  that  followed  the  first  intercourse  between  Europe 
and  the  New  World?  What  will  she  say  about  the  two 
fold  folly  that  led  us  to  empty  America  of  its  natural 
population  and  replace  it  by  negroes  forcibly  brought  from 
another  world  ?  What  will  she  say  when  she  records  what 
these  negroes  have  become  in  the  United  States  ? 

Did  not  Jefferson  say :  "I  tremble  for  my  country  when 
I  remember  that  there  is  a  justice  of  God!  " 

The  negroes  were  about  four  million  strong  in  the  United 
States  half  a  century  ago,  when  they  ceased  to  be  slaves. 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  359 

They  now  number  ten  millions,  or  more  than  a  tenth  of  the 
total  population  of  the  country.  They  are  steadily  in 
creasing  and  multiplying.  Their  mortality  is  high,  but 
their  birth  rate  exceeds  their  death  rate.  How  is  such  a 
question  to  be  settled? 

The  day  of  reckoning  is  sure  to  come  sooner  or  later. 
The  United  States  are  bearing  the  chastisement  for  one  of 
Europe's  worst  crimes.  In  our  time  there  can  be  no  enslav 
ing  a  nation,  and  still  less  a  race,  with  impunity.  Sooner 
or  later,  right  has  its  revenge.  As  an  example  of  this,  we 
have  the  Balkan  states.  If  Poland  and  Alsace  are  pointed 
out  as  contrary  instances,  my  reply  is :  "Wait  and  see." 

5.    Inevitable  Reckoning 

I  can  easily  see  the  danger  and  complexity  of  the  negro 
problem,  but  I  fail  to  perceive  how  it  is  to  be  solved.  The 
Americans  have  already  moved  heaven  and  earth  in  this 
cause.  They  abolished  slavery  by  waging  the  war  of 
secession,  at  the  risk  of  their  own  existence,  and,  after 
such  an  effort,  we  need  not  despair  of  them.  But  what  will 
follow  ? 

Slave  Trade 

From  the  first,  the  distribution  of  the  colored  folk  im 
ported  into  America  was  unequal.  The  negro  races  are 
still  more  varied  than  those  into  which  the  whites  are 
divided.  There  are  abysmal  differences  in  the  degrees  of 
civilization  or  barbarism  between  them.  The  most  docile, 
intelligent  and  industrious,  the  best  blood  in  western 
Africa,  the  descendants  of  pastoral  and  agricultural  peoples, 
are  in  Cuba  and  the  Antilles,  where,  being  well  treated  by 
the  Spaniards,  they  are  making  progress.  The  inhuman 
policy  of  Napoleon  I  in  San  Domingo  has  nevertheless 
paralyzed  this  progress,  to  the  great  disadvantage  of  the 


360  AMERICA   AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

negroes,  of  France  and  of  civilization.  The  others  —  those 
who  were  imported  into  Louisiana  and  thence  into  the 
United  States  to  oppose  the  Indians  —  belonged  to  warlike 
cannibal  tribes.  Spurred  on  by  the  slave  dealers  who  waited 
on  the  coast,  caravans  —  a  practice  that  has  only  lately 
been  stopped  —  made  the  journey,  often  a  long  one, 
to  the  coast,  where  their  prisoners  began  a  new  form  of 
captivity.  The  " ebony  wood"  was  thrown  into  the  holds 
of  the  sailing  vessels  —  worthy  successors  of  the  Mediter 
ranean  galleys  and  commanded  by  criminals  of  the  worst 
type.  The  world  can  never  have  any  conception  of  the 
atrocities  committed  on  these  voyages.  What  remained 
alive  of  the  human  cattle,  on  reaching  the  New  World,  was 
taken  to  market,  cleaned  and  sold  by  auction. 

War  of  Secession 

I  saw  the  stone  on  which  slaves  were  put  up  for  sale  at 
New  Orleans.  They  were  then  packed  off  in  gangs,  watched 
by  ferocious  dogs,  to  some  part  or  other  of  the  country.  Those 
on  French  plantations  were  generally  well  treated  and  be 
came  family  retainers  —  the  "good  niggers"  of  abolitionist 
literature  —  until,  paradoxically  enough,  the  war  of  seces 
sion  liberated  them  without  any  preparatory  measures  and 
cast  them  adrift.  Other  negroes  were  set  to  work  in  factories 
or  put  to  building  and  road  making.  They  were  given  no 
instruction,  they  had  nothing  to  which  they  could  look 
forward,  and  the  result  was  that  they  formed  a  class 
naturally  inferior  to  the  free  workmen  of  Europe.  The 
contempt  entertained  for  them  by  the  English  and  Ameri 
cans  —  a  characteristic  to  which  I  have  already  referred  — 
was  far  from  making  it  easier  to  educate  them.  Separated 
from  the  white  population  as  they  were  by  the  suspicion 
attaching  to  their  awe-inspiring  hereditary  instincts,  their 
color,  their  ignorance,  their  temperament  and  their  customs, 


THE   IDEALISTIC   MOVEMENT  361 

they  had  literally  no  resource  except  to  become  brutalized. 
They  were  doubly  in  bondage  —  the  former  slaves  of 
masters  who  were  themselves  degraded,  and  slaves  of  their 
animal  instincts  inflamed  by  drink  and  orgies.  It  is  easy 
to  understand  why  the  European  colony  had  an  ungovern 
able  prejudice  against  them,  amounting  to  a  horror  of 
black  men,  and  why  the  whites  absolutely  refused  to  come 
into  contact  with  them  and  made  up  their  minds  to  use 
them  like  animals  and  nothing  more.  It  is  obviously  dim- 
cult  to  react  against  the  consequences  of  such  a  system, 
which  was  fatal  to  masters  as  well  as  slaves.  It  led  to 
antipathy  between  the  two  races  —  an  antipathy  that  was 
not  merely  physical,  but  was  the  outcome  of  reasoning. 

Liberated,  but  not  Citizens 

In  the  South,  the  liberated  negroes  are  not  yet  allowed  to 
sit  next  to  a  white  man.  More  than  once  I  sat  down  in 
advertently  in  the  negro  compartment  of  a  tramcar  and  was 
motioned  into  the  other  by  the  conductor.  The  negroes 
have  separate  waiting-rooms  and  dining-rooms  at  the  rail 
road  stations  in  the  South.  The  colored  folk  are  free,  but 
they  are  not  citizens.  There  is  some  explanation  for  the 
summary  executions,  which  strike  us  as  monstrous,  of 
negroes  by  whites.  Lynch  law  is  a  survival  of  Indian  war 
fare.  The  bestial  nature  of  the  crimes  committed  by 
drunken  negroes  excites  not  only  indignation  but  alarm, 
owing  to  the  poor  organization  of  justice  in  so  large  and 
thinly  populated  a  country.  The  whites,  knowing  them 
selves  to  be  in  a  minority,  lose  their  heads,  and,  not  being 
able  to  rely  on  the  operation  of  the  law,  they  protect  them 
selves  against  violence  by  violence  of  their  own.  The  mis 
fortune  is  that,  unlike  the  Indian,  the  negro  cannot  look 
forward  to  ultimate  salvation  through  intermingling  with 
the  white  race.  Independently  of  the  instinctive  prejudice 


362  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

to  which  I  have  referred,  we  have  to  consider  the  danger 
to  civilization  which  would  result  from  too  free  inter 
marriage.  People  are  asking  themselves  whether  this  inter 
mingling  ought  not  to  be  moderated  as  much  as  possible, 
and  this  at  a  time  when  scientific  discoveries  will  certainly 
help  to  make  it  more  frequent.  The  effect  of  cutting 
through  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  like  that  of  Suez,  and 
building  railroads  all  over  Africa  and  Asia,  must  be  to 
bring  the  races  of  mankind  closer  and  closer  together  and 
commingle  them.  Emulation,  and  not  an  indiscriminate 
blending  of  the  various  races  on  the  globe,  is  what  is  needed 
in  the  general  interest  of  humanity.  In  the  United  States 
moreover,  the  mixture  of  black  and  white  blood  is  consid 
ered  as  giving  very  bad  results.  It  is  asserted  that  half- 
breeds,  mulattos  and  quadroons  lose  the  good  qualities  of 
the  negro  and  take  the  bad  qualities  of  the  white,  and  this 
conviction  is  so  strongly  held  that  it  involves  social  com 
plications  impossible  to  settle.  There  is  no  room  for  a 
child  born  of  a  white  husband  and  a  black  wife.  He  is  an 
outsider  wherever  he  goes.  He  may  look  at  life  with 
childish  anticipation  and  the  broad  grin  of  the  darky,  but 
life  shuts  the  door  in  his  face.  No  white  child  will  play 
with  him.  When  I  denounced  this  treatment  as  cruelty, 
the  reply  was:  "We  must  beware  of  allowing  the  negro 
child  to  live  with  children  whose  later  existence  he  cannot 
share.  How  can  a  little  black  boy  be  a  playmate  of  a  little 
white  girl  whom  he  can  never  marry,  except  at  the  risk  of 
bringing  other  unfortunates,  outcasts  and  pariahs  into  the 
world?  The  child  of  a  mixed  marriage  has  often  been 
defined  as  a  white  soul  confined  in  a  black  body." 

While  the  solution  of  the  problem  is  being  sought  for, 
the  problem  is  becoming  more  and  more  serious.  The 
negroes  are  increasing  and  multiplying,  but  they  are  still 
foreigners  amid  the  population  of  America,  and,  worst  of 
all,  they  form  the  only  foreign  element  that  cannot  be 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  363 

assimilated.  Another  difficulty  is  that  the  black  popula 
tion  is  very  unequally  distributed  over  the  forty-eight 
states  of  the  Union.  In  some  it  is  almost  nil,  while  in 
others  it  forms  the  majority.  In  some  parts  of  the  state  of 
Alabama,  it  attains  the  proportion  of  seven  to  one.  Here 
we  have  a  people  liberated  but  not  adopted,  that  will  de 
cide  the  fate  of  a  state  and  of  several  states,  inasmuch  as 
negro  suffrage  is  being  taken  into  account,  and  finally, 
when  the  crisis  comes,  that  of  the  entire  federation. 

The  Negro  in  a  White  Democracy 

Yes,  the  day  of  reckoning  always  comes !  but  there  are 
times  when  we  seem  to  be  paying  very  dear  for  the  sins  of 
our  ancestors.  The  United  States  are  now  paying  dearly 
for  the  crimes  committed  by  our  " ebony- wood"  dealers 
when  they  invented  the  devilish  scheme  of  dragging  the  in 
habitants  of  one  continent  away  to  another.  At  present 
they  do  not  know  what  to  do  with  the  swarms  of  descend 
ants  of  these  blacks.  They  tried  a  different  plan,  that  of 
establishing  another  country  for  the  blacks  —  the  Republic 
of  Liberia,  in  West  Africa ;  but  the  negroes,  having  become 
acclimatized  in  America,  declined  to  return  to  the  other 
side  of  the  ocean.  Their  reply  was :  "You  will  have  to 
keep  us.  Here  we  are,  and  here  we  stay,"  and  they  have 
remained  in  the  United  States.  What  will  be  their  ulti 
mate  position  in  that  nation  ?  I  was  long  inclined  to  despair 
of  their  future  and  of  any  solution  of  the  problem,  but  my 
conviction  was  shaken,  to  my  own  great  relief,  by  the  con 
fidence  displayed  by  men  whose  high  ideals  remind  me  of 
those  of  the  great  European  Liberals  of  former  times.  To 
begin  with,  I  found  myself  obliged  to  reckon  with  the  tre 
mendous  efforts  made  since  the  war  of  secession  to  educate 
the  negroes  and  raise  them  above  their  former  level.  And 
yet,  what  is  the  use  of  instructing  them  and  giving  them  a 


364  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

share  in  the  general  coeducation  of  the  country  if  they 
are  not  to  have  the  same  right  to  existence  in  that  country  ? 
To  instruct  them  so  as  to  let  them  intermingle  with  the 
American  race  is  impossible,  and  to  exclude  them  from  the 
life  of  the  nation  is  just  as  impossible.  What  is  to  be  done  ? 
Do  you  propose  to  bring  up  a  brotherhood  of  ten  millions 
in  enmity  to  eighty  million  Americans? 

The  Americans,  however,  do  not  despair ;  they  never  do. 
They  say  the  worst  time  is  over  —  the  time  that  came 
immediately  after  emancipation.  No  provision  was  made 
for  the  future  of  the  freed,  and  it  was  deplorable.  What 
was  to  be  done  with  a  generation  that  had  no  predecessor, 
that  was  suddenly  awakened  to  freedom  without  having 
ever  exercised  it,  that  was  left  to  itself  after  having  known 
no  will  but  the  masters',  that  was  free  to  earn  its  living  by 
work,  although  work,  to  their  minds,  had  nothing  honor 
able  about  it  and  was  slavery  itself  ?  Idleness,  wretchedness 
and  degradation  were  inevitable  under  such  conditions,  and 
the  consequence  was  that  soon  after  their  emancipation,  we 
were  confronted  with  the  worst  specimens  of  the  negro 
that  had  ever  existed.  They  were  the  sons  of  slaves ! 
Now,  however,  this  generation  is  dying  out,  and  the  in 
stinct  of  self-preservation  has  reasserted  itself.  Philan 
thropists  have  come  forward,  as  in  other  countries,  to 
facilitate  the  transition,  and  this  transition  is  education. 
A  remarkable  establishment,  Tuskegee  Institute,  has  been 
founded  in  Alabama  by  a  mulatto,  Dr.  Booker  T.  Wash 
ington,  an  excellent  and  celebrated  man.  This  school  has 
already  rendered,  and  continues  to  render,  services  the 
value  of  which  is  steadily  becoming  more  and  more  evident. 
It  gives  material  and  moral  instruction  to  great  numbers 
of  colored  people  of  both  sexes,  and  they,  in  turn,  spread 
their  knowledge  throughout  the  South,  hitherto  very 
poorly  provided  even  with  white  teachers.  They  have 
already  raised  the  negro  level  beyond  all  expectations 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  365 

in  the  course  of  a  very  few  years.  Negroes  have  developed 
a  taste  for  education  and  have  shown  themselves  worthy 
of  it.  They  have  their  own  doctors,  lawyers,  bankers, 
insurance  companies  and  so  on,  managed  by  negroes. 
Mulattoes  and  negroes  make  excellent  servants  in  hotels 
and  private  houses;  and  I  have  already  mentioned  the 
politeness,  exactness,  honesty  and  other  qualities —  quite 
a  specialty  and  almost  a  monopoly  —  shown  by  negroes 
on  all  the  railroad  trains.  Dr.  Booker  Washington  is 
himself  an  example  of  the  high  culture  of  which  a  negro 
is  capable  and  of  the  eminent  services  he  can  render  the 
country.  But  the  more  one  investigates  the  question,  the 
more  one  discovers  other  points  which  I  am  not  justified 
in  omitting.  I  will  confine  myself  to  the  testimony  of  the 
men  who  are  best  qualified  to  speak. 

Sir  William  van  Home,  a  Canadian  justly  celebrated 
for  his  important  railroad  and  other  enterprises  in  Canada 
and  Cuba,  summed  up  his  opinion  by  telling  me  that  the 
Americans  had  made  the  same  mistake  as  the  English,  and 
had  failed  to  realize  that  men,  be  they  white,  black  or  yel 
low,  can  be  made  to  do  anything  if  they  are  well  treated. 
Sir  William  added  :  "I  have  employed  negroes  in  Cuba  and 
given  them  my  utmost  confidence.  I  have  intrusted  them 
with  large  sums  of  money,  important  messages  and  valu 
able  documents  to  convey  from  one  end  of  the  island  to  the 
other,  through  the  dangers  of  forests  and  solitudes.  Not 
one  of  them  has  ever  betrayed  my  confidence."  This 
contemporary  testimony  confirms  that  of  the  noblest  Eu 
ropean  explorers  of  Africa  and  Asia.  Brazza  never  em 
ployed  any  weapon  but  kindness.  Major  Marchand,  and 
there  are  many  others  like  him,  crossed  Africa  from  west 
to  east  with  a  mere  handful  of  men.  Nachtigal  the  Ger 
man  lived  alone  in  the  Lake  Chad  district.  .  Auguste  Pavie 
did  the  same,  and  for  a  much  longer  time,  in  the  Upper 
Mekong,  which  was  morally  subjugated  by  his  uprightness. 


366  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

Confidence  and  kindness  were  justified  in  the  person  of 
Livingstone.  During  the  thirty  years  he  spent  among  the 
negroes,  they  protected  him  and  loved  him,  so  much  so 
that  they  respected  even  his  remains,  which  now  speak  to 
the  world  on  their  behalf  from  his  grave  in  Westminster 
Abbey. 

General  Leonard  Wood,  when  governor  general  of  Cuba, 
utilized  his  qualities  of  heart  still  more  than  his  intelligence 
to  atone  for  and  correct  the  mistake  made  by  his  country 
men.  He  extended  negro  education  and  founded  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  schools,  increasing  their  number  in  a 
very  short  time  from  100  to  5500.  The  result  was  im 
mediate. 

It  is  a  fact,  as  I  have  said,  that  the  Cuban  negroes  are 
superior  to  those  of  the  United  States,  but  the  Spaniards 
treated  them  well,  while  the  Americans  have  sentenced 
them  without  appeal.  Negroes  have  a  strong  sense  of 
dignity.  Lower  them,  and  you  degrade  them.  In  Cuba 
they  are  remarkably  faithful.  Teach  them,  and  they  will 
teach  one  another. 

In  the  state  of  Virginia  there  is  a  negro  school,  the  Hamp 
ton  Institute,  and  I  shall  never  forget  how  completely  my 
notions  were  upset  when  the  white  superintendent,  Mr. 
Hollis  Burke  Frissell,  explained  the  question  as  he  under 
stood  it.  Until  that  time  I  had  never  realized,  as  I  do 
now,  what  a  great  piece  of  injustice,  or  rather  what  a  great 
crime,  had  been  committed.  Mr.  Frissell  spoke  with  the 
simplicity  of  a  philanthropist,  but  in  the  same  strain  as  the 
moral  pioneers  who,  before  his  time,  helped  to  regenerate 
the  world.  He  showed  me  the  frightful  condition  in  which 
the  negroes,  whom  we  reproach  with  not  being  like  our 
selves,  have  been  left  since  the  very  beginning,  from  the 
Roman,  Babylonian  and  Mussulman  epochs  of  slavery. 
He  declines  to  exclude  them  from  the  great  onward  march  of 
humanity  or  to  doubt  that  they  can  contribute  to  the  gen- 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  367 

eral  progress.  He  described  the  grandeur  —  which  is  not 
only  possible  but  certain,  in  his  opinion  —  of  the  new  worlds 
that  are  awakening  and  will  know  nothing  of  excommuni 
cation,  blood-stained  tyranny  and  systematic  degradation. 
He  sketched  the  future  of  the  disinherited  races  that  will 
participate  in  the  development  of  the  United  States, 
Canada,  the  two  Americas,  Asia  and  finally  Africa.  They 
have  been  its  victims  and  they  will  be  its  saviors,  if  we 
treat  them  well;  he  repeats  "like  children,  they  must  be 
taught  to  walk." 

Numerous  disciples  of  Booker  Washington  are  being 
raised  up  in  the  present  generation  of  negroes  and  are  pre 
paring  to  instruct  the  others.  Let  them  but  find  imitators 
in  our  European  colonies,  and  the  problem  of  their  organ 
ization  will  be  all  the  more  simplified.  The  negroes'  future 
will  be  easier  in  Africa  than  in  America,  because  they  will 
be  in  their  natural  surroundings,  provided  we  give  them 
natural  development  conditions  that  will  bear  comparison 
with  our  own.  Hitherto  they  have  been  crushed  not 
merely  by  barbarity  and  slavery,  but  by  the  unhealthy 
climate  in  which  they  are  compelled  to  live,  by  their  state 
of  insecurity,  by  sickness,  by  poverty,  and  by  war  —  al 
ways  the  same  cause  —  with  no  other  outlook.  How  could 
they  have  developed  ?  Their  progress  has  been  the  reverse 
of  ours.  For  centuries  they  have  been  going  back  while 
the  whites  advanced.  The  weakest  had  no  refuge  but 
marshes  and  inaccessible  forests.  They  have  come  down 
to  the  lowest  rung  in  the  ladder  of  humanity,  while  the 
whites  climbed  upwards.  Give  them  peace,  justice  and 
education,  and  you  will  see  a  transformation  in  them.  Do 
not  judge  them  by  what  you  see  of  them  in  cities  where 
they  are  degraded  by  a  system  that  treats  them  as  machines 
or  animals.  Give  them  a  chance  to  cultivate  such  aptitude 
as  they  possess,  and,  owing  first  of  all  to  education  and 
then  to  agriculture,  you  will  see  them  catch  up  to  you 


368  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

and  help  you.  What  you  sow,  that  shall  you  also  reap. 
To  free  the  slave  and  redeem  him  is  a  good  beginning, 
but  to  atone  for  the  crime  is  the  whole  duty,  and  the 
redemption. 

At  any  rate,  while  people  refuse  to  recognize  that  negroes 
possess  good  qualities,  some  use  has  been  made  of  those 
qualities.  I  will  close  this  summary  of  the  arguments  I 
have  heard  on  their  behalf  by  an  incident  dating  back  to 
the  youth  of  an  American  ambassador  in  Paris.  He  told 
me  that  during  the  war  of  secession  a  young  Boston  officer, 
Col.  Robert  Gould  Shaw,  whose  admirable  monument,  in 
Boston,  by  the  sculptor  Augustus  Saint-Gaudens  is  well 
known,  undertook  to  form  a  black  regiment,  the  fifty-fourth 
Massachusetts,  but  found  himself  opposed  by  Northern 
sentiment,  which  was  ready  to  emancipate  slaves  but  not 
to  fight  on  the  same  side  with  them.  He  persisted  in  his 
project,  so  as  to  prove  their  bravery,  and  he  succeeded 
to  such  an  extent  that  they  were  half  of  them  killed,  with 
himself  at  their  head,  in  a  bayonet  charge  under  the  walls 
and  in  the  trenches  around  Fort  Wagner.  They  claimed 
the  post  of  honor  and  they  had  it.  We  have  no  right  to 
forget  these  men  when  we  talk  of  American  idealism. 
Though  we  may  do  justice  to  what  they  have  suffered  and 
achieved  in  the  past,  this  does  not  regulate  their  future, 
and  they  are  still  left  face  to  face  with  the  sad  reality  that, 
between  them  and  white  America,  divorce  is  just  as  im 
possible  as  cohabitation.  The  problem  is  not  merely 
moral,  social  and  economic ;  it  is  political.  How  can  two 
races,  whom  Nature  and  history  have  done  everything  to 
separate,  live  on  the  same  soil  and  under  the  same  laws, 
together  yet  isolated,  and  both  constantly  engaged  in  the 
same  national  work,  if  they  are  neither  to  love  nor  to  hate 
each  other?  What  will  be  the  negro's  place  in  a  white 
democracy? 


THE   IDEALISTIC   MOVEMENT  369 

Injustice  to  be  Confirmed  or  Atoned  For 

Those  skeptics  who  reproach  us  with  our  belief  in  a  better 
humanity  may  triumph  over  the  admission  that,  no  matter 
what  results  may  ever  be  attained,  the  mass  of  suffering 
and  injustice  will  always  exceed  human  powers.  We  see 
sons  and  grandsons,  nephews  and  grand-nephews  suffer  in 
atonement  for  the  sins  of  their  ancestors.  Is  a  curse  to 
rest  on  a  whole  people,  full  of  energy  and  promise,  because 
of  the  long  martyrdom  inflicted  for  all  time  on  the  black 
race?  There  is  no  question  so  ominous  for  the  future  of 
the  United  States  as  the  negro  question.  Very  little  is 
said  about  it,  —  most  people  would  like  to  forget  it,  —  but 
it  complicates  all  the  other  problems.  With  every  step 
they  make  the  Americans  will  come  in  contact  with  it 
and  now  the  burden  of  solving  it,  a  mighty  and  impossible 
feat,  is  placed  on  their  shoulders.  The  sins  of  the  fathers 
are  visited  upon  the  children.  They  cannot  escape  it; 
every  day  that  passes  brings  the  obligation  to  choose 
whether  they  will  add  to  injustice  or  make  amends  for  it. 
No  one  dreams  of  the  former  course,  which  would  mean 
making  the  situation  still  worse.  As  for  the  second,  no 
one  can  see  how  it  is  to  be  done. 

Americans  have  Faith 

I  remember  the  violent  dislike  of  the  Americans  at  Seattle 
to  what  they  called  the  unbearable  burden  of  the  old  ques 
tions  bequeathed  by  old  Europe.  They  had  come  in  search 
of  a  clear  field  where  there  would  be  nothing  to  interfere 
with  their  youthful  enterprises.  They  were  in  a  hurry  to 
escape  from  these  questions  and  establish  their  new  scheme 
of  existence.  They  had  made  their  way  from  the  East  as 
far  as  possible  westward  until  they  reached  the  Pacific  and 
the  extremity  of  the  New  World.  It  was  all  in  vain,  and 

2B 


370  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

they  are  now  discovering  that  turning  your  back  on  it 
does  not  dispose  of  a  question.  It  pursues  you.  The  only 
course  is  to  retrace  one's  steps,  face  the  difficulty  and  join 
with  the  rest  of  the  country,  from  all  points  of  the  circum 
ference  as  far  as  the  center,  in  trying  to  solve  the  problem ; 
to  search  in  every  direction,  to  use  all  one's  ingenuity  to 
make  a  comprehensive  survey  from  the  summit  of  an  ideal 
eminence  that  grows  higher  every  day;  and  by  the  exer 
cise  of  reason,  determination  and  good  will,  the  Americans 
will  find  what  they  seek,  because  they  want  to  live,  because 
they  have  faith. 

6.   Religion  and  Church    Works.     Is  it  Dying  Out  or 
Modernized  ? 

Americans  are  believers.  This  does  not  mean  that 
they  are  generally  devout  and  pious,  and  still  less  does 
it  imply  renunciation.  It  is  the  kind  of  youthful,  en 
thusiastic  belief  that  disposes  of  the  worst  difficulties, 
like  a  great  and  hearty  effort  made  after  a  sound  sleep. 
It  implies  moral  and  physical  energy  stimulated  by  ob 
stacles  and  finding  causes  for  action  in  even  the  contradic 
tions  of  Nature.  It  is  spring  born  of  winter ;  it  is  belief 
in  the  destiny  of  humanity  as  an  integral  part  of  creation. 

Is  this  belief  of  a  religious  nature?  Mistakes  on  this 
point  are  quite  possible.  Americans  discuss  religious 
questions  very  little,  especially  with  a  Frenchman.  They 
have  a  horror  of  arguments  about  religion  and  especially 
of  sarcasms  of  the  kind  dear  to  the  disciples  of  Voltaire. 
Religion  is  one  of  those  reserved  territories  which  a  foreigner 
might  suppose  to  be  neglected,  but  on  which  Americans 
do  not  like  intruders  to  stray  with  religious  passions  from 
another  country  or  another  age.  Religion,  whether  prac 
ticed  or  not,  is,  to  the  American  mind,  doubly  entitled  to 
respect,  both  on  account  of  its  moral  tendency  and  its 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  371 

past.  Whatever  may  have  been  its  failings,  it  is  bound 
up  with  the  history  of  the  United  States,  in  which  country 
it  has  been,  and  still  is,  an  element  of  civilization.  This 
is  sufficient  to  insure  its  not  being  discussed  lightly.  The 
church  was  the  first  source  and  means  of  human  associa 
tion  ;  it  was  born  of  the  need  that  men  feel  more  than  ever 
-  and  Americans  perhaps  still  more  than  the  rest  —  of 
coming  together  on  days  of  rejoicing  and  days  of  sorrow, 
to  unite  for  good  and  against  evil,  to  sing,  to  weep  —  to  hope 
in  spite  of  everything  and  to  give  one  another  mutual 
support.  It  is  easy  to  say  that  religion  is  dying  out  in 
the  United  States,  but  I  am  not  at  all  sure  of  this.  I 
take  no  account  of  external  appearances,  such  as  the 
number  and  the  wealth  of  certain  churches  (at  any  rate 
those  in  large  cities),  respect  for  all  forms  of  belief  and 
religious  observances  that  impress  a  Frenchman,  such  as 
the  grace  said  at  the  beginning  of  a  meal,  and  such  frequent 
expressions  as  " thank  God,"  "please  God,"  "God  bless 
you  "  and  so  on ;  and  I  observe  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  attendance  at  church  is  becoming  smaller  and  smaller. 
Few  men  go  there,  the  proportion  being  one  man  to  ten 
women  and  children.  In  church,  the  priest  can  no  longer 
talk  about  the  devil  or  hell  or  an  avenging  Providence, 
neither  can  he  discuss  Paradise  and  future  rewards,  or 
put  forward  dogmas,  or  say  mass  in  Latin,  or  hypnotize 
himself  by  the  beliefs  of  a  past  which  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  country.  All  this  kind  of  thing  is  archaic  and 
out  of  date,  to  say  the  least.  We  are  far  removed  from 
the  time  when  the  constitution  of  Massachusetts  provided 
(Article  2)  that  "no  traveler,  carter  or  other  person  shall 
go  about  on  Sunday,  under  penalty  of  fine";  and,  in 
Article  4,  that  "any  one  who,  being  in  good  health  and 
without  good  and  sufficient  reason,  fails  to  take  part  in 
public  worship  for  three  months,  shall  be  fined  ten  shillings" 
(1827-1828).  It  is  true  that  these  laws,  which  were  very 


372  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

much  like  those  of  the  other  states,  were  seldom  enforced ; 
though  Tocqueville  wrote  in  1835:  ''Sunday  observance 
is  what  strikes  the  stranger  more  than  anything  else." 
"  After  Saturday  evening/'  he  adds,  "  there  is  a  general 
state  of  lethargy." 

Nowadays,  we  find  the  president  of  Harvard  University 
mentioning,  as  a  proof  of  great  progress,  that  in  1886  it 
was  at  last  decided  that  students  should  not  be  required 
to  attend  service.  I  cannot,  however,  deduce  from  these 
changes  that  religion  is  dying  out;  they  impress  me,  on 
the  contrary,  as  healthy  signs,  because  the  church  is  be 
coming  modernized.  The  old  rule,  "immobilis  in  mobile," 
cannot  be  followed  in  America,  where  immobility  spells 
death.  To  keep  alive,  the  churches,  together  with  the 
entire  population  of  the  United  States,  are  looking  for  new 
fields  of  activity,  and  are  finding  them.  Their  diversity, 
which  some  interpret  as  weakness,  is  their  strength,  and  it  is 
one  of  the  national  forces.  A  single  religion  would  soon  be  in 
conflict  with  the  public  authorities,  as  is  the  case  in  France, 
Italy  and  Spain.  The  government  of  souls  would  try  to  en 
croach  on  the  government  of  men,  and  these  would  rise  in 
revolt.  There  are  many  religions  that  cannot  be  combative. 
The  Americans  have  neither  time  nor  men  to  waste  in  fruit 
less  disputes.  They  want  churches  that  will  combine  to  help 
them,  and  that  combination  is  effected.  The  churches  sub 
mit  to  the  law  of  competition  and  profit  by  it.  They  are 
rivals  in  a  spirit  of  good  intentions  and  not  of  hate.  They 
share  in  the  great  national  work,  and  are  associates  in 
stead  of  enemies.  What  they  each  lose  individually  by  this 
community  of  action  they  gain  in  vitality  and  popularity. 
Each  grows  in  proportion  to  its  own  self-effacement. 

Religion,  which  looks  as  if  it  were  dying  out,  is  thus 
undergoing  a  process  of  evolution,  like  everything  else. 
It  could  not  be  otherwise.  The  American  religion  is  a 
combination  of  colonial  religions ;  that  is  to  say,  a  mosaic 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  373 

of  religions  which  have  been  transplanted  or  improvised, 
in  the  whirl  of  city  life  or  the  solitude  of  agricultural  es 
tates,  for  the  use  of  immigrants  from  every  quarter  of  the 
globe.  As  these  immigrants  gave  up  everything  to  leave 
their  own  countries,  who  can  pretend  to  be  able  to  bring 
them  back  to  a  copy  of  the  church  that  was  once  theirs? 
They  are  all  more  or  less  merged  in  the  whole,  and  how 
are  they  to  be  separated?  It  might  perhaps  be  done  in  a 
great  city,  but  not  elsewhere.  The  immigrants  are  not 
very  particular,  and  they  are  content  with  the  house  or 
church  that  shelters  them.  They  return  to  life  and,  at 
the  same  time,  to  primitive  religion.  Later  on,  when 
these  centers  of  population  develop  into  cities  and  states, 
they  are  brought  into  closer  union  by  their  mutual  weak 
ness;  they  enter  the  federation  of  the  United  States,  and 
their  churches  are  obliged  to  follow  their  example.  This 
is  true  even  of  the  Catholics.  They  remember  their  origin. 
It  is  even  considered  at  Rome  that  they  remember  it  only 
too  well,  and  that  is  why,  it  is  said,  Mgr.  Ireland,  Arch 
bishop  of  St.  Paul,  has  never  been  made  a  cardinal.  They 
readily  accept  rapprochements  in  which  their  great  num 
ber  and  the  unity  with  which  they  act  can  insure  their 
preeminence.  We  must  not  forget  that,  though  they  come 
closer,  they  do  not  lose  their  individuality  —  and  here  this 
is  true  of  all  these  intermingled  religions  —  and  they  do 
not  even  mix  together  among  themselves.  You  can  hear 
an  Irish  Catholic  exclaim  with  cheerful  contempt,  when 
he  sees  a  crowd  of  Sicilians  or  Maltese  Catholics:  "And 
those  are  the  fellows  that  make  Popes!"  But  these 
differences  do  not  prevent  a  general  agreement  in  the  life 
of  America. 

Competition  in  Well-doing 

The  understanding  among  the  churches  is  more  or  less 
closely  following,  whether  they  like  it  or  not,  the  federation 


374  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

of  the  United  States.  We  cannot  yet  say  that  the  federa 
tion  stage  has  been  reached,  but  there  is  association,  both 
frequent  and  occasional,  and  competition  to  see  which  will 
do  the  most  good  and  make  itself  the  most  useful  to  the 
public.  Every  church  holds  that  the  better  world  is  here, 
in  the  new  and  not  the  old  hemisphere,  and  still  less  in  a 
future  life!  Religion  was  made  for  man  and  not  man  for 
religion.  Man  is  turning  his  back  on  the  past.  He  is  all 
for  the  present  and  the  future.  Religion  must  march  with 
him  if  it  is  to  be  anything  more  than  a  remembrance.  It 
is  throwing  aside  its  impedimenta,  and  gradually  giving  up 
its  dogmas,  credos  and  uncompromising  attitude.  When 
the  Congress  of  Religions  met  at  Chicago,  a  general  formula 
of  belief  that  would  arouse  the  least  possible  objection  had  to 
be  found,  and  it  can  be  summed  up  in  one  word  "  useful 
ness."  The  church  makes  itself  useful,  first  and  foremost, 
and,  as  the  great  and  general  need  is  education,  it  consti 
tutes  itself  a  school.  It  has  its  Sunday  schools,  where  it 
shows  children  how  to  sing,  to  teach,  to  know  and  love  one 
another ;  it  brings  parents  together  at  childrens'  gatherings ; 
it  organizes,  on  its  own  premises,  the  family  festivals  for 
which  the  heart  longs  in  exile ;  and  the  child,  being  the 
future  of  the  country,  becomes  the  real  object  of  its  cult. 
The  church,  however,  does  not  monopolize  the  child  and 
does  not  contend  with  city  or  college  for  him.  This  would 
involve  stopping,  seeking  to  dominate,  and  losing  the 
way.  The  church  has  something  better  to  do.  It  takes 
hold  of  the  most  urgent  work,  such  as  charitable  and  social 
improvement,  organizations  and  moral  teaching.  It  is 
most  interesting  and  encouraging  to  observe  the  suc 
cessful  way  in  which  the  church  assumes  a  great  many  and 
varied  forms,  and  transforms  itself  into  a  club,  a  society 
and  even  a  theater  if  need  be.  Any  effort  towards 
better  things  is  religion. 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  375 

Religion  of  Good 

How  could  a  religion,  made  up  of  so  many  religions  that 
cooperate  in  the  great  melting  together  of  races,  languages 
and  dogmas,  fail  to  be  welcome  in  a  new  country?  The 
force  of  circumstances  has  brought  the  infinite  variety  of 
churches,  like  the  universities,  into  accord.  Conflict 
among  them  would  be  chaos,  but  tolerance  is  salvation. 
It  is  true  that  tolerance  in  this  sphere  may  open  the  door 
to  a  great  many  eccentricities  and  abuses,  but  we  must 
take  into  account  the  principle  of  never  discouraging  initia 
tive  and  of  letting  the  good  sense  of  the  public  and  the 
general  law  of  competition  weed  out  the  bad  from  the  good. 
We  must  also  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  necessary  to  make  the 
transitions  gradual.  Religions  are  not  born  promiscuously, 
they  correspond  to  moral  and  material  needs,  and,  so  long 
as  these  needs  continue,  the  religions  maintain  their  title 
to  existence.  We  have  seen  an  instance  of  this  with  the 
Mormons,  where  polygamy  remains,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
justified,  by  custom  if  not  by  law,  through  the  necessity 
of  obtaining  help  in  the  cultivation  of  waste  lands.  In 
other  parts  of  the  country,  various  forms  of  doctrine  have 
tried  their  luck.  Some  have  succeeded,  like  the  Free 
masons,  and  others  have  failed  after  undergoing  a  test 
which,  in  the  United  States,  is  final  but  free  and  generally 
fruitful.  Communism  is  one  instance,  and  others  are 
supplied  by  Owenism,  the  Icarian  colonies  and  the  Fouri- 
erists. 

I  have  found  rich  and  flourishing  churches  all  over  the 
United  States  and  even  in  Europe,  especially  in  England, 
which  belong  to  a  new  sect,  the  Christian  Science  religion, 
founded  by  Mrs.  Eddy.  It  has  its  cathedral  at  Boston, 
where  a  large  part  of  the  population  belongs  to  it ;  and  it 
has  its  own  Bible,  carried  by  a  great  many  passengers, 
especially  the  ladies,  on  board  Atlantic  liners.  It  is  per- 


376  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

haps  the  only  religion  that  excites  serious  criticism,  —  not 
so  much  among  other  churches  as  in  the  country  at  large,  — 
because,  in  one  sense,  it  evades  the  common  law.  It  does 
not  confine  itself  to  competing  with  the  other  churches  in 
patriotic  ardor ;  it  competes  with  science,  physicians  and 
surgeons.  The  enormous  progress  made  by  this  special 
sect  alarms  a  great  many  Americans,  while  others,  on 
the  contrary,  are  'delighted  with  it.  I  will  discuss  it  im 
partially  as  a  really  impressive  sign  of  the  present  state 
of  the  American  mind,  before  attempting  to  define  what 
seems  to  me  to  be  the  religious  spirit  —  the  religion  of  the 
future  in  the  United  States. 


Christian  Scientists.     Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Eddy 

The  Christian  Scientists  are  propagating  their  ideas  all 
over  the  United  States  with  a  vigor  that  produces  a  very 
singular  mixture  of  enthusiastic  belief  and  genuine  opposi 
tion.  As  we  know,  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  who  died  in 
Boston  two  years  ago,  made  an  incalculable  and  steadily 
increasing  number  of  proselytes  during  her  lifetime.  Her 
prestige  was  incredible  but  can  be  understood  on  looking 
at  her  portrait,  which  shows  noble  and  regular  features 
and  an  expression  of  majestic  gentleness  combined  with 
intensity.  All  that  is  wanting  in  her  portraits  is  a  halo. 
Her  religion  was  conceived  not  merely  as  moral  guidance, 
but  as  a  physical  cure  and  a  form  of  regular  treatment  - 
the  religion  of  health,  of  the  mind  and  the  body.  This  is 
carried  to  such  a  point  that  many  Christian  Scientists 
have  been  prosecuted  for  illegally  giving  medical  advice. 
A  great  many  people  assert  that  they  have  been  almost 
miraculously  cured  of  their  ills  simply  by  observing  the 
principles  of  Christian  Science.  This  science  in  reality 
consists  of  strength  of  mind,  evenness  of  temperament, 
confidence  and  even  cheerfulness  purposely  used  against 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  377 

discouragement  and  depression  —  preeminently  an  Anglo- 
American  complaint.  Suppose  you  are  nervous,  spiritless 
and  melancholy ;  do  not  send  for  a  doctor  but  for  a  disci 
ple  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  He  or  she  will  come  and  talk  to  you, 
stimulate  your  moral  energy,  and  persuade  you  that  all 
your  troubles  are  in  your  imagination  and  loss  of  control 
over  yourself,  and  that  you  will  soon  be  cured.  Such  is  the 
problem,  and  it  is  easy  to  imagine  what  the  universities 
think  of  it  and  the  abuses  to  which  the  application  of 
Christian  Science  can  give  rise. 

In  company  with  an  American  senator,  I  attended  a 
Christian  Science  meeting  in  1907,  under  the  presidency 
of  Hayne  Davis,  an  apostle  of  the  new  religion,  and  we 
spoke  in  one  of  their  principal  churches.  It  was  one  of 
the  bright  and  sumptuous  places  of  worship  they  have 
in  every  city  in  the  United  States,  and  generally  several 
in  each  city.  The  scene  was  something  like  a  drawing- 
room  on  the  day  of  a  garden  party.  The  women  were 
beautifully  dressed  and  smiling,  and  all  knew  one  another, 
like  members  of  a  large  club.  The  church  was  profusely 
decorated  with  plants  and  flowers,  and  every  one  joined 
in  the  singing  led  by  the  choir  and  organ.  Every  one 
stopped  to  talk  on  leaving  the  church  after  the  service. 
The  men,  who  seemed  very  quiet,  spoke  even  more  gently 
than  the  women.  It  was  like  what  one  sees  outside  one 
of  our  fashionable  churches  after  an  Easter  confirmation 
service.  Satisfaction  and  joy  shone  in  every  face. 

This  determination  to  beautify  life  and  to  ignore  or 
annihilate  its  difficulties  by  combination,  serenity  and 
steady  effort  is  extended  by  Christian  Scientists  from 
individual  existences  to  those  of  families  and  of  the  whole 
nation.  I  have  heard  more  than  one  American  express 
uneasiness  as  to  what  may  result  from  this  excessive  sacri 
ficing  of  the  individual  to  a  fixed  principle  and  wrenching 
him  from  the  influence  of  physical,  family  and  social 


378  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

trouble.  " Christian  Scientists/'  I  am  told,  "are  one  of 
those  associations  of  mystics  of  which  history  records  many 
instances.  It  is  an  alarming  form  of  fanaticism,  because 
their  contempt  for  material  bonds  extends  from  the  body 
to  all  obligations,  including  marriage  and  family  ties. 
It  calls  souls,  out  of  their  carnal  abodes  and  husbands  and 
wives  from  their  homes." 

The  Christian  Scientists  are  none  the  less  ardent  patriots. 
They  approve  of  building  dreadnoughts  and  strengthening 
the  American  fleet;  but  at  the  same  time  they  are  con 
stantly  engaged  in  contributing  to  increase  public  wealth 
(thereby  helping  the  cause  of  peace)  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  as  well  as  to  preserve  the  country's  natural  beau 
ties  and  develop  its  resources.  But  for  the  dreadnoughts 
and  the  medical  question,  every  one  could  approve  of  their 
principles.  They  take  great  pains  to  stimulate  economic 
emulation  all  over  the  country.  They  encourage  not  only 
individuals  but  cities  and  states  to  believe  in  themselves, 
their  future  and  their  ultimate  success.  They  have  under 
taken  to  develop  public  confidence. 

Mind  Cures 

We  need  not  be  surprised  if  such  an  undertaking  appeals 
to  a  great  many  sincere  people  in  a  country  in  which  every 
one  wants  to  use  his  powers  to  the  best  advantage.  I 
remember  hearing  Buffalo  Bill,  in  the  middle  of  his  camp, 
explain  his  extraordinary  youthfulness  and  vigor  by  a  few 
words  which  he  repeated  with  evident  satisfaction.  "It 
is  in  the  mind, "  he  said ;  "it  is  in  the  mind." 

Strangely  enough,  after  having  felt  merely  amused  by 
this  remarkable  display  of  confidence,  I  began  to  feel  less 
sure  of  myself  and  to  think  that,  after  all,  there  must 
be  something  useful  in  Christian  Science  for  their  churches 
to  increase  to  such  an  extent  in  the  United  States  and 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  379 

abroad.  This  is  how,  I  confess,  my  skepticism  was  shaken. 
One  day  I  was  admiring  a  very  fine  church  in  one  of  the 
handsomest  cities  of  California.  With  me  was  an  Ameri 
can  —  an  excellent  business  man,  very  intelligent  and  not 
at  all  credulous.  When  I  expressed  my  surprise,  he  told 
me  that  this  fine  church  was  not  the  only  one  the  Christian 
Scientists  had  built  in  the  city.  There  was  another,  he 
said,  not  far  away,  even  finer  and  with  quite  as  large  a 
congregation.  There  was  nothing  ironical  about  his  re 
marks,  and  when  I  asked  for  further  information,  he 
continued  in  the  same  tone,  with  perhaps  a  shade  of  de 
pression  in  his  voice : 

"  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  those  churches  are  useful. 
If  the  Christian  Scientists  try  to  persuade  me,  when  I  have 
broken  my  leg,  that  the  fracture  is  purely  imaginary,  or 
that  a  contagious  disease  among  my  children  should  be 
treated  with  contempt,  they  are  ridiculous  and  ought  to 
be  prosecuted  as  quacks  of  the  most  dangerous  kind; 
but  one  must  not  judge  a  system  by  the  abuses  that  arise 
from  it.  A  great  many  women  in  this  country  are  imagi 
nary  invalids,  and  only  imagination  can  cure  them." 

This  gave  me  food  for  thought,  and  I  was  at  once  re 
minded  of  what  Moliere  wrote.  Perhaps  Christian  Science 
is  a  form  of  reaction  against  the  ineffectiveness  of  medical 
treatment  in  an  immense,  new  country  with  a  scattered 
population,  or  against  the  practice  of  carrying  out  surgical 
operations  on  the  slightest  provocation.  The  history  of 
Mrs.  Eddy  herself  throws  light  on  the  matter.  There 
was  nothing  in  her  early  life  to  suggest  that  she  would  one 
day  be  a  sort  of  apostle.  A  mother,  she  became  a  widow 
and  married  again,  but  was  always  an  invalid.  She  was 
then  living  in  the  state  of  Maine,  and  failing  to  obtain 
relief  from  medicines,  she  consulted  Dr.  Phineas  Quimby, 
who  was  a  pupil  of  Charles  Poyen  and,  consequently,  a 
disciple  of  our  Nancy  school  in  France.  After  having 


380  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

suffered  for  many  years  from  a  disease  of  the  spinal  column 
supposed  to  be  incurable,  she  was  restored  to  health  in 
1862  by  Dr.  Quimby's  magnetism  or  mesmerism.  This 
was  her  road  to  Damascus.  It  was  the  starting  point  of 
the  religion  whose  Bible  she  wrote  and  disseminated  so 
thoroughly. 

As  for  the  Nancy  school,  it  has  extended  in  Europe  and 
has  its  mind-cure  clinic  in  Paris,  where  Dr.  Berillon  carries 
on  the  work  of  Liebault  and  Bernheim,  who  were  considered 
by  the  faculty  itself  as  savants  of  high  standing.  They 
were,  in  fact,  savants.  In  this  lies  all  the  difference,  and 
it  is  very  great.  A  great  many  sensible  people  in  France 
make  fun  of  the  abuses  and  weaknesses  of  the  medical 
profession  and  its  Latin  and  Greek  terminology,  and  we 
still  hear  it  said  that  "all  that  the  doctors  have  done  to 
cure  a  cold  is  to  call  it  a  coryza."  The  doctors  themselves 
admit  that  the  mind-cure  system  is  very  useful.  It  is 
now  accepted  as  a  scientific  principle  and  forms  a  part 
of  curative  science.  It  is  not  so  in  the  United  States,  at 
any  rate  at  present,  for  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  Christian 
Scientist  healers  will  take  to  passing  their  medical  examina 
tions,  and  then  their  position  will  be  unassailable.  This 
point,  however,  has  not  been  reached.  At  present  there 
is  nothing  religious  about  the  mind  cure  in  France,  where 
it  is  a  branch  of  scientific  progress.  In  the  United  States 
it  belongs  to  quackery  and  mysticism,  also  under  the 
head  of  progress,  which  is  quite  intelligible. 

When  the  Americans  originally  established  themselves 
in  the  country,  they  were  compelled,  nine  times  out  of  ten, 
to  do  without  doctors,  but  they  none  the  less  think  a  great 
deal  about  their  health.  It  is  quite  a  common  thing  here 
for  people  to  have  themselves  operated  upon  for  appen 
dicitis  before  starting  on  a  journey,  simply  as  a  precaution. 
During  one  of  my  last  visits  to  the  United  States,  shortly 
before  the  king  of  England's  coronation,  there  was  a  great 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  381 

deal  in  the  newspapers  about  an  American  great  lady,  the 
young  wife  of  an  English  lord,  who  had  had  herself  operated 
upon  in  advance,  so  as  to  make  sure  of  not  missing  the 
celebrations  in  London. 

We  should  observe  the  importance  attached  in  the 
United  States  to  the  prevention  of  disease  by  diet,  fresh 
air,  change  and  prohibition,  that  is  to  say,  forbidding  the 
use  of  any  stimulant.  We  must  not  forget  that,  in  some 
houses,  the  daily  bill  of  fare  is  drawn  up  by  a  specialist 
who  has  made  a  special  study  of  the  nutritive  values  of 
foods  and  who  is  called  "  dietitian." 

The  Christian  Science  Monitor 

With  physicians  either  too  scarce  or  inefficient,  and  sur 
geons  too  enthusiastic,  the  Christian  Scientists  prosper 
greatly  throughout  the  country,  although  they  are  often  at 
tacked  and  prosecuted  individually.  They  carry  on  their 
operations  all  over  the  forty-eight  states,  and  their  center  is 
at  Boston,  where  Mrs.  Eddy  founded  her  church,  or  rather 
her  cathedral,  which  is  constantly  being  enlarged.  Nothing 
escapes  them.  They  have  adepts  who  follow  everything 
that  goes  on  and  is  worth  notice,  and  who  act  as  corre 
spondents  of  their  organ,  the  Christian  Science  Monitor. 
This  paper  is  published  at  Boston,  in  a  splendid  building 
close  to  the  cathedral.  It  is  not  only  a  good  but  an  excep 
tionally  well-edited  journal.  Its  articles  on  local  and  general 
topics  are  very  well  done.  The  propagation  of  Christian 
Science  ideas  is  only  lightly  touched  upon,  while  there  is 
a  large  amount  of  news  so  edited  as  to  be  interesting  and 
useful  to  every  city,  state  and  organization.  This  news 
paper  was  mentioned  to  me  as  one  of  the  best  in  the  United 
States  by  university  friends  of  mine,  who  were  not  Christian 
Scientists  themselves,  and  I  have  often  found  myself  in  a 
position  to  confirm  their  opinion.  The  Monitor  does  not 


382  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

confine  itself  to  the  states  of  the  union,  but  publishes  an 
international  edition,  and  has  voluntary  correspondents 
all  over  the  world.  I  visited  its  offices,  about  the  finest 
I  have  ever  seen.  One  of  the  directors  explained  the 
policy  —  a  correct  one  —  of  the  paper  as  laid  down  in  its 
entirety  by  Mrs.  Eddy :  "  'Nothing  sensational,  no  horrors 
and  no  tragedies;  do  exactly  the  opposite  of  other  news 
papers;  try  to  make  your  readers  peaceful  and  happy 
instead  of  crazy.'  As  an  instance,  while  all  the  other 
papers  described  the  terrible  scenes  that  occurred  during 
the  wreck  of  the  Titanic,  we  gave  prominence  to  every 
instance  of  courage,  self-denial,  heroism  and  religious 
faith  —  in  short,  everything  that  might  be  elevating  and 
enlightening  to  our  readers.  l  Tell  them  about  the  good 
that  is  done  '  is  our  motto.  The  result  is  that  what  our 
Monitor  loses  in  local  news  it  gains  in  extent  and  depth. 
It  finds  its  way  everywhere,  even  to  the  East  Indies,  and 
the  reader  does  not  care  whether  the  number  he  has  before 
him  is  old  or  new,  because  the  paper,  not  being  sensational, 
is  always  interesting.  It  is,  moreover,  without  prejudice ; 
we  never  discuss  religion  and  do  not  insert  any  doubtful 
advertisements.  We  give  one  page  to  every  great  country, 
such  as  England,  France  or  South  America ;  another  page 
to  subjects,  not  of  the  day,  but  of  the  present  time,  of 
economic  and  social  interest;  and  an  illustrated  page  to 
sport,  fashions,  etc.  We  let  the  reader  follow  whatever 
political  ideas  he  prefers.  We  are  neither  for  nor  against 
Mr.  Roosevelt,  Mr.  Taft  or  Mr.  Wilson.  We  give 
speeches,  facts  and  figures  as  correctly  as  possible,  so  as 
always  to  gain  the  reader's  confidence  rather  than  appeal 
to  his  emotions.  The  result  is  that  we  offend  no  one  and 
interest  every  one.  Our  paper  is  really  a  daily  illustrated 
magazine  —  an  independent  family  journal  designed  to 
propagate  physical  and  moral  hygiene.  We  send  corre 
spondents  to  centers  where  the  truth  is  being  withheld  or 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  383 

concealed  by  political  or  financial  influence,  notably 
Persia  and  Turkey,  and  we  always  end  by  reaping  our 
reward.  The  public  is  grateful  for  what  we  do,  and  sup 
ports  us.  As  you  can  see  by  our  outward  indications  of 
progress,  this  is  a  very  good  business  proposition.  We 
make  money  by  exploiting  good  instead  of  evil,  and  our 
circulation  is  increasing  all  the  time,  in  spite  of  all  gloomy 
predictions." 

The  Cathedral 

As  for  the  cathedral,  which  I  visited,  it  is  quite  a  little 
world  in  itself.  It  contains  a  church  and  a  hall  for  concerts 
and  lectures,  with  excellently  arranged  massive  mahogany 
seats,  giving  plenty  of  room  for  an  audience  of  five  thousand 
to  sit  comfortably.  On  every  hand  are  signs  of  order, 
discipline  and  good  organization.  Above  a  very  large 
platform  rises  a  huge  organ,  and  several  inscriptions  from 
Mrs.  Eddy's  Bible  are  carved  on  the  stone  wall.  One, 
the  most  characteristic,  is:  " Never  breathe  an  immoral 
atmosphere  except  to  purify  it"  (p.  452,  line  14). 

It  is  a  great  surprise  to  find  such  a  cathedral  with  such 
a  newspaper  next  door,  in  the  heart  of  American  idealism, 
intellectualism  and  progress,  in  the  same  city  as  the  vener 
ated  Harvard  University  and  so  many  historic  churches 
(many  of  which  are  less  wealthy),  especially  as  Boston  is 
making  progress,  extending  in  all  directions,  adding  new 
features  appropriate  to  a  great  city,  and  improving  those 
already  existing,  enlarging  its  harbor  and  even  reclaiming 
land  from  the  sea,  like  the  Dutch  polders,  as  if  there  were 
no  more  territory  available  in  the  New  World.  But  why 
cite  Boston  alone?  Have  I  not  observed  the  same  eclec 
ticism  and  the  same  toleration  in  all  the  universities,  and 
seen  the  Christian  Science  paper  read  even  in  medical 
schools?  I  expressed  my  astonishment  to  one  of  my  best 
friends,  formerly  president  of  a  very  large  university,  a 


384  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

strong  Presbyterian  and  not  by  any  means  a  Christian 
Scientist,  the  weight  and  authority  of  whose  opinions 
entitle  him  to  the  utmost  respect.  He  made  no  reply, 
but  nodded  his  head,  and  his  wife,  who  fully  shares  in  his 
beliefs  and  work,  merely  remarked:  "They  do  good. 
One  of  our  relations  was  so  ill  that  there  were  never  enough 
of  us  to  look  after  her.  She  was  cured  by  the  Christian 
Scientists,  and  now  she  looks  after  all  the  others." 

Union  of  Religions 

I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  on  the  success  achieved  by 
a  religion  which,  in  the  opinion  of  many  Americans,  is 
not  a  religion  at  all.  They  believe  that,  sooner  or  later, 
it  will  come  into  conflict  with  education  and  science  in 
the  United  States  and  Europe,  and  will  place  public  senti 
ment  and  the  American  government  in  a  quandary.  My 
object  is  to  show  the  extent  to  which  tolerance  is  carried 
towards  churches  as  well  as  universities ;  but  it  is  obvious 
that  we  must  not  judge  the  American  churches  as  a  whole 
by  exceptions  or  accidental  circumstances,  and  we  will 
limit  ourselves  to  their  general  tendency  towards  trans 
formation. 

The  objection  may  be  made  that  a  religion  designed  for 
service,  for  curing  bodily  ailments  and  helping  to  colonize 
is  not  a  religion  at  all,  but  a  combination  of  philanthropic 
and  temperance  societies,  a  registry  office  and  a  school  of 
social  morals  —  in  short,  a  utilitarian  enterprise  and  not 
a  religion.  The  meaning  of  words  need  not  take  up  our 
time;  we  are  in  a  new  country,  where  people  have  not 
always  had  the  time,  the  means  or  the  desire  to  form  church- 
going  communities.  We  must  not  forget  that,  not  only  is 
there  a  great  scarcity  of  school  teachers  all  over  the  country, 
but  it  is  still  harder,  especially  in  the  South,  to  find  priests 
and  ministers.  Mgr.  Ireland  sends  to  Europe  for  his 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  385 

clergy,  and  the  seminary  he  founded  at  St.  Paul  is  excep 
tional.  These  new  conditions,  added  to  the  difficulty  of 
communications  over  great  distances,  and  scarcity  of 
resources,  compel  the  churches  to  rejuvenate  religion. 
Otherwise  religion  will  die  out  altogether;  and,  to  re 
juvenate  it,  all  possible  measures  are  tried.  Churches 
advertise,  like  theaters,  in  the  newspapers.  They  utilize 
everything  that  can  attract  the  public  decently.  These 
are  rough-and-ready  methods.  America  is  not  the  only 
country  to  use  them.  The  Salvation  Army  scandalized 
Europe  by  its  bands  and  its  noisy  way  of  getting  at  the 
working  classes,  among  whom  it  does  a  great  deal  of  good, 
and  this,  after  all,  is  the  main  point  and  the  object  aimed 
at.  Even  in  New  York,  teachers  come  forward  volun 
tarily  to  make  up  the  inadequacy  of  the  churches,  and 
their  action  is  generally  approved.  In  1907,  I  was  asked 
by  Dr.  Adler  to  speak,  one  Sunday  morning,  to  the  Ethical 
Culture  Society  which  he  founded  and  which  has  developed 
so  brilliantly.  I  was  taken  to  a  very  large  hall  that  might 
have  been  either  a  theater  or  a  place  of  worship.  I  felt 
as  if  I  were  in  a  church,  because  there  was  just  the  same 
religious  fervor,  and  the  same  appeals  were  made  to  the 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice  in  all  its  forms.  It  is  not  at  all  easy 
to  define  the  boundary  between  secular  morality  and  re 
ligion  in  the  United  States. 

Does  this  mean  that  the  churches  are  giving  up  religion 
so  as  to  be  able  to  keep  their  supporters?  Not  at  all. 
They  all  more  or  less  derive  their  inspiration  from  the  same 
scruple,  and  this  scruple  is  a  religious  one.  They  see 
that  Americans  take  nothing  for  granted,  and  they  feel 
that  they  cannot  escape  the  common  lot  if  they  adhere 
too  closely  to  the  past.  They  avoid  repudiation,  but  they 
say  as  little  as  possible  about  beliefs  "of  human  invention" 
that  are  too  open  to  discussion,  although  these  beliefs  once 
led  to  considerable  shedding  of  ink  and  blood.  They  know 

2C 


386  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

that  the  faithful  are  more  than  indifferent  to  these  mysteries, 
which  would  end,  if  forced  upon  them,  by  making  them  into 
unbelievers,  and  the  churches  are  accordingly  modernizing 
religion.  They  do  it  more  or  less  cautiously,  but  it  has 
become  a  rule  to  be  ignored  only  under  penalty  of  breaking 
up  the  congregation.  "The  mystery  of  the  Holy  Trinity," 
said  Bishop  Phillips  Brooks,  "simply  appears  insignificant 
in  comparison  with  the  enormous  amount  of  moral  and 
social  work  to  be  done  by  the  American  churches.  Let 
every  one  enjoy  his  liberty  and  his  own  beliefs ;  the  essential 
thing  is  what  the  church  can  do  for  its  neighbors  and  the 
country."  We  may  go  still  further  and  say  that  the  re 
ligious  scruple  to  which  I  have  referred  is  not  merely  pru 
dent  and  negative.  It  is  wise  and  modest;  it  implies 
fear  of  giving  an  unsatisfactory  definition  to  the  indefinable. 
Is  it  not  as  futile  to  define  God  as  to  deny  His  existence? 
This  aversion  to  incursions  into  the  unknowable  is  a  con 
scious  reversion  to  humility  and  a  step  to  all  the  concessions 
that  are  possible  on  the  part  of  the  churches.  How  can 
we  try  to  define  God,  to  imagine  Him  and  to  bring  Him 
within  the  narrow  limits  of  our  conceptions?  Why  make 
distinctions  between  God  and  His  works?  We  have  not 
yet  discovered  all  the  earth.  What  do  we  know  about  the 
universe  and  creation?  And  yet  we  claim  to  be  able  to 
define  the  Creator!  We  have  wasted  our  energies  for 
centuries  in  absurd  and  tragic  disputes  over  our  pretentious 
attempts  to  define  the  Creator. 

The  Spirit  of  the  French  Revolution 

The  spirit  of  the  French  Revolution  and  the  conceptions 
of  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  are  more  alive  in  the  United 
States  than  in  France.  The  Americans  know  nothing 
about  them  but  have  been  brought  up  on  them.  They  do 
not  talk  about  a  "supreme  Being,"  neither  do  they  say, 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  387 

"Let  us  enlarge  God"  —  a  formula  to  which  they  would 
object  as  too  narrow;  but  they  refuse  to  belittle  Him. 
What  we  take  for  indifference  on  their  part  is  a  new  am 
bition  which  should  form  a  climax  to  all  their  other  am 
bitions  —  that  of  completing  their  political  by  their  religious 
independence,  of  liberating  themselves  from  the  past  in 
the  sphere  of  religion  as  in  all  other  spheres  of  thought, 
and  of  liberating  God.  They  are  broadening  their  con 
sciences.  They  extend  their  tolerance  to  religious,  moral 
and  social  questions,  and  the  first  settle  themselves  auto 
matically  when  the  two  others  are  disposed  of.  The 
revolutionary  formula  "Neither  God  nor  master"  has  no 
meaning  in  America,  because  the  church  does  not  exer 
cise  any  domination.  That  admirable  man  Dr.  Edward 
Everett  Hale,  who,  like  many  others,  is  more  or  less  con 
sciously  a  disciple  of  Fourier,  exclaimed  at  Lake  Mohonk : 
"We  have  burst  our  bonds  and  freed  ourselves  politically 
and  religiously.  Henceforth  man  will  solve  the  great 
problems  of  his  life  with  his  own  conscience  and  with  no 
one  between  him  and  his  Creator.  The  desire  of  our 
country  was  to  be  the  cradle  of  the  freest,  the  most  uni 
versal  and  the  most  personal  of  religions,  and  it  is.  We 
have  no  state  religion.  Every  one  of  us  looks  at  the  sky 
above  him,  believing  that  in  it  exists  an  infinite  Being,  his 
Father  and  his  Friend,  with  whom  he  is  in  direct  intercourse. 
"  But  this  Father  and  Friend,  though  invisible  and  un 
knowable,  manifests  Himself  in  His  works.  Channing, 
referring  to  the  beauties  of  Nature  in  his  youth,  says: 
'  I  have  tasted  the  greatest  joy  on  earth  —  that  of  com 
munion  with  the  works  of  God ' ;  and  it  was  in  the  name 
of  this  universal  independent  American  religion  that  he 
claimed  for  his  country  the  honor  of  directing  all  the 
humanitarian  movements  of  our  time.  What  are  we? 
the  children  and  grandchildren  of  the  Englishmen,  French 
men,  Germans  and  Scandinavians,  who  populated  our 


388  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

continent?     We  are  brothers,  and  we  should  unite  with 
one  voice  against  the  evil  that  threatens  us  all." 

The  Pioneer  of  Pioneers 

We  thus  see  that  Americans,  far  from  giving  up  religion, 
consider  it  a  source  of  new  ideas  and  place  it  in  the  highest 
possible  position.  They  are  freeing  it  from  its  egotistical 
aims.  To  an  American  Christian  —  who  is  not  very  far 
removed  from  an  Israelite  in  this  respect,  —  the  main 
thing  is  not  to  prepare  for  a  future  state  but  to  make 
good  use  of  the  present.  We  can  conceive  all  the  churches, 
including  even  the  synagogues,  agreeing  in  respect  for 
Christ.  The  Jews  themselves  say  He  was  one  of  them 
selves,  and  Americans  regard  Christ  as  the  highest  ideal  for 
the  future  social  state  to  the  coming  of  which  they  are  en 
deavoring  to  contribute.  Christ  refused  to  define  Himself, 
and  confined  Himself  to  setting  the  example  and  inculcating 
just  those  virtues  of  which  Americans  feel  the  need :  for- 
getfulness  of  self,  the  love  of  one's  fellow  men,  and  the  cult 
of  true  justice.  Christ  it  is  who  shows  us  the  road  to  higher 
things  through  the  sacrifice  of  ourselves.  He  is  the  greatest 
of  all  examples  and  the  pioneer  of  pioneers. 

Sentiment  and  Reason 

In  this  state  of  mind  —  natural  with  men  who  left  their 
homes  to  escape  from  our  Byzantine  controversies  and  to 
seek  for  the  " kingdom  which  is  not  of  this  world"  beyond 
the  limits  of  Europe  —  the  churches  can  no  more  be  hostile 
to  one  another  than  they  can  be  idle.  They  reconcile 
sentiment  and  reason. 

Indifference  to  Dogma 

As  soon  as  they  voluntarily  give  up  all  supernatural 
authority  and  adopt  the  well-known  formula  "  Indifference 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  389 

to  dogma  is  our  only  dogma,"  as  soon  as  they  cease  to  dis 
cuss  their  points  of  difference  and  allow  their  teaching  and 
their  actions  to  have  the  same  meaning,  how  can  we  fail 
to  see  the  beginning,  not  of  fusion  into  one  mass,  I  repeat, 
but  of  union  for  them  all.  It  is  a  more  or  less  slow  process 
of  evolution,  but  nothing  can  interfere  with  it  except  a 
stoppage  in  the  progress  of  the  United  States.  If  things 
continue  in  their  present  course,  and  if  Americans  pursue 
their  development  in  unity  and  peace,  they  will  ultimately  set 
Europe  a  twofold  example  of  political  and  religious  federa 
tion.  Channing  expected  France  to  give  birth  to  the  religion 
of  the  future,  but  we  have  no  clear  field  for  it,  and  it  will  be 
gradually  evolved  in  the  United  States  for  our  descendants. 
This  is  a  task  that  is  quite  worthy  to  excite  the  enthusiasm 
of  so  young  a  nation,  and  it  will  set  the  climax  to  that 
nation's  economic  and  political  mission  if  it  succeeds  in 
escaping  the  madness  born  of  ambition,  if  it  does  not  lose 
the  consciousness  of  its  destiny,  if  it  chooses  its  represen 
tatives  wisely,  and  if  it  compels  its  government  to  open 
up  new  paths  and  turn  aside  from  the  ruts  into  which  we 
have  fallen. 

Unitarians 

The  number  of  men  who  are  paving  the  way  for  this 
religion  of  the  future  by  their  example  and  precept  is  in 
calculable.  They  belong  to  a  lineage  that  goes  back  to 
the  early  Puritans  and  Methodists  and  was  humanized  by 
the  breath  of  Unitarianism.  This  high-minded  sect  ap 
pears  to  have  died  out.  Why?  Because  it  has  accom 
plished  its  purpose,  which  was  to  penetrate  the  others  and 
bring  them  together  —  a  fine,  disinterested  achievement 
of  which  scarcely  any  trace  is  left.  To  act,  create  and 
fight  for  one's  principles  is  a  joy,  a  delight  and  a  glory; 
but  to  reconcile  others  and  their  ambitions  is  a  thankless 
task  and  therefore  the  grandest  of  all  tasks.  It  is  commonly 


3QO  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

said  that  the  Unitarians  never  made  any  progress  except 
among  other  churches.  I  can  quite  believe  it,  seeing  that 
they  came  out  of  their  own.  The  pilot  puts  out  in  his 
frail  bark,  in  spite  of  darkness,  storm  and  reefs  close  at 
hand,  to  bring  the  great  mail  steamer  into  port,  but  he  gets 
no  credit  for  it.  We  simply  accept  the  fact  that  the  vessel 
has  arrived  safely.  It  is  the  same  with  the  Unitarians. 
History  will  do  them  justice.  I  can  but  express  my  admira 
tion  for  their  disinterested  work  of  peacemaking  and  general 
organization,  so  largely  imbued  with  French  influence.  This 
work  will  be  misunderstood  and  hampered,  but  will  none  the 
less  be  accomplished.  I  have  seen  an  equally  chimerical 
enterprise  succeed  —  at  the  Hague  Congress  in  1899  and 
1907. 

Rival  Gods 

For  the  first  time  perhaps,  official  representatives  of  all 
the  states  in  the  world  met,  in  pursuance  of  a  purely  ideal 
purpose,  to  begin  the  task  of  drawing  up  a  declaration  of 
the  duties  of  man,  his  rights  having  been  already  laid 
down.  There  were  Europeans,  Americans,  Asiatics  and 
delegates  of  every  race  and  religion,  each  having  its  own 
Church,  its  churches  and  its  Deity.  No  harmony  was 
possible  among  the  advocates  of  these  rival  deities,  except 
through  self-effacement  in  one  great  and  common  under 
taking,  or  through  cooperation.  But  this  cooperation  was 
complicated  by  mistrust  and  unconfessed  designs,  as  well  as 
by  temporal  and  not  very  moral  ideas.  Nevertheless,  the 
conception  that  it  was  possible  to  render  humanity  a  great 
service  began  to  predominate  over  considerations  of  a  less 
elevated  kind.  The  mere  ambition  to  render  this  service 
caused  all  these  representatives  of  more  or  less  hostile 
races  and  religions  to  set  to  work  and,  after  weeks  and 
months  of  heated  debates,  to  produce  a  joint  creation,  a 
nucleus  of  international  justice.  When  the  right  time 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  391 

comes,  it  will  not  be  any  more  difficult  to  bring  represen 
tatives  of  all  beliefs  into  agreement  over  the  nucleus  of  a 
system  of  morality  common  to  every  religion  in  the  world. 
This  form  of  progress  will  simply  be  the  outcome  of  all  the 
others  realized  in  our  time.  It  will  be  to  the  honor  of 
Americans  to  have  contributed  to  it. 

I  am  under  no  delusion  when  I  say,  as  the  result  of  years 
of  observation,  that  Americans  have  a  growing  tendency 
to  devote  themselves,  in  a  broader  and  broader  spirit  of 
altruism,  to  public  movements  that  will  serve  as  a  link  to 
bind  more  and  more  closely  together  all  men,  all  nations 
and  all  churches. 

The  uses  of  religion  interest  them  more  than  religion 
itself  and  are,  in  their  eyes,  nothing  but  a  reversion  to  the 
true  Christian  spirit.  Is  this  an  unconscious  reversion? 
If  so,  it  will  be  all  the  more  active.  No  thoughtful  man 
or  woman  can  live  in  America  without  feeling  pity  for  the 
schisms  prevailing  in  the  Old  World  and  the  conclusion  is 
obvious. 

Phillips  Brooks 

At  Boston  I  paid  a  visit  to  the  house  of  Phillips  Brooks, 
Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  Massachu 
setts,  who  died  at  Boston  Jan.  23,  1893.  His  admirers 
and  disciples,  in  their  desire  to  do  due  honor  to  his  memory, 
built,  not  a  church,  but  a  house,  the  "  Phillips  Brooks 
House,"  a  club  or  center  for  the  maintenance  of  mutual 
assistance  and  faith,  where  the  Harvard  University  students 
meet  together  with  any  one  willing  to  work  with  them. 
What  is  this  work  ?  It  consists  of  keeping  Phillips  Brooks's 
ideals  alive  and  spreading  their  beneficent  contagion,  of 
training  people  in  the  service  of  good  causes,  especially 
the  most  thankless.  A  system  of  relief  for  children  and 
the  poor  is  in  process  of  elaboration  in  this  little  house. 
Here  also  arrangements  are  made  to  look  after  the  thousands 


392  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

of  emigrants  who  land  at  Boston  on  their  way  to  various 
parts  of  the  country.  They  must  be  prevented  from  falling 
into  bad  hands  and  from  being  exploited  and  wrongly  ad 
vised.  It  is  a  piece  of  great  good  fortune  for  them  to  have 
so  many  unexpected  friends,  guides  and  correspondents. 
Phillips  Brooks  set  the  example  of  these  services  during 
his  lifetime.  He  advocated  them,  and  he  addressed  himself 
to  young  minds,  to  which  he  opened  out  endless  horizons 
of  good  works.  To  this  simplified  form  of  religion  he  de 
voted,  with  all  the  force  of  his  great  nature,  the  latter  part 
of  his  life. 

Like  Phillips  Brooks,  there  are  many  in  Europe  who 
deserve  our  admiration.  Innumerable  are  our  religious 
and  secular  saints,  but  they  have  been  hampered.  The 
Catholic  religion,  especially  in  France,  has  priests  who 
are  superior  to  those  of  other  countries,  but  the  church 
will  not  allow  them  to  be  modern.  She  paralyzes  them 
—  which  is  a  very  different  thing;  and  she  condemned 
Lamennais.  Had  Father  Hyacinthe  Loyson  lived  in  the 
United  States,  he  would  have  died  glorious.  Phillips 
Brooks  was  the  ideal  of  the  good  shepherd  and  the  good 
American  citizen.  When  he  was  to  speak,  the  whole  city 
came  to  hear  him,  and  he  could  appeal  to  the  whole  city. 
He  inspired  so  much  respect  among  the  various  denomina 
tions  that  they  were  all  represented  at  his  funeral,  and  on 
that  day,  all  the  church  bells  tolled  in  unison.  When  a  com 
mittee  was  formed  in  Boston,  a  few  years  after  his  death, 
to  build  the  house  I  afterwards  visited,  contributions  came 
in  from  all  sides.  Episcopalians,  Unitarians,  Orthodox- 
believers,  Congregationalists,  Methodists,  Swedenborgians 
and  Catholics  were  at  one  in  trying  to  perpetuate  his  in 
fluence  and  his  spirit  and  to  prepare  for  the  religion  of  the 
future. 


THE   IDEALISTIC   MOVEMENT  393 

The  Religion  of  the  Future 

Charming  believed  that  to  France  would  fall  the  task  of 
founding  the  religion  of  the  future.  In  his  time  it  was 
already  said  that  religion  was  dying  out  in  France,  but 
he  took  account  of  the  still  existing  moral  and  religious 
sentiment  that  finds  its  expression  in  work  and  philanthropy. 
He  also  judged  France  by  the  good  she  had  accomplished. 
He  relied  on  her  because  she  had  so  often  proved  herself 
worthy  and  so  often  stood  on  the  brink  of  the  precipice, 
risking  her  liberty,  her  blood,  her  future  and  even  her 
life  for  her  ideal  of  justice  and  liberty.  He  recognized 
her  as  entitled  to  seniority  in  the  great  family  of  civilizing 
nations,  and  he  recognized  all  the  virtues  of  maligned 
France,  because  she  remained  true  to  her  name,  as  Ruskin 
said;  because  she  is  frank,  because  her  inward  religion, 
her  really  national  religion,  is  the  spirit  of  fraternity. 
But  he  did  not  take  into  account  the  hold  established  by 
age-long  systems  of  domination  on  this  spirit  of  brother 
hood,  neither  did  he  reckon  what  it  had  to  suffer  or  the 
disappointments  it  encountered ;  and  finally,  what  he  took 
to  be  moral  bankruptcy  was  a  revolt  of  the  French  religious 
spirit,  not  so  much  against  religion  itself  as  against  its 
abuses.  A  great  many  Americans  make  the  same  mistake, 
and  the  Catholics  in  particular  have  exaggerated  it  so  far 
as  to  be  unjust.  The  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Baltimore, 
Mgr.  Gibbons,  usually  a  liberal-minded  man,  publicly 
condemned  this  revolt  of  French  vitality  at  the  time  of  the 
debate  on  our  laws  relating  to  the  religious  congregations 
and  the  separation  of  church  and  state.  He  gave  the 
signal  to  his  priests  to  pronounce  an  anathema,  which  was 
taken  up  by  fifteen  million  Catholics,  against  Republican 
France.  It  was  unjust,  to  begin  with,  it  was  mistaken 
and  it  was  imprudent;  for,  although  this  happened  only 
a  few  years  ago,  the  truth  is  already  becoming  evident. 


394  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

The  responsibility  of  the  persecutions  with  which  France 
was  reproached,  although  she  was  merely  defending  herself, 
is  beginning  to  fall  on  the  Holy  See.  The  Republic  is  all 
the  greater  for  the  attacks  she  had  to  face  in  order  to  save 
her  principles,  which  are  exactly  the  same  as  those  prac 
ticed  by  the  United  States.  We  do  not  need  to  look  very 
far  ahead  before  asking  ourselves  whether  attacks  on  the 
spiritual  independence  of  the  French  Republic  do  not 
constitute  a  threat  against  the  future  of  the  American 
Republic.  The  truth  is  coming  to  light  through  reflection, 
through  observation  of  the  progress  achieved  by  a  free 
France  in  political,  intellectual,  moral  and  material  ques 
tions,  and  finally  through  the  discovery  that  the  slanderous 
charges  made  against  her  were  grossly  exaggerated.  I 
lay  stress  on  this  point,  because  it  is  important  to  dispose 
of  the  baseless  stories  circulated  with  the  object  of  setting 
American  public  opinion  against  efforts  to  secure  freedom 
of  thought  in  France. 

American  Women  and  Secularization  in  France 

Most  American  travelers  land  in  Europe  with  a  mental 
attitude  that  can  easily  be  imagined;  they  come  to  rest, 
and  to  see  something  new.  By  this  they  mean  what  is 
most  unlike  the  United  States,  and  the  ''something  new" 
is  old  Europe.  I  know  more  than  one  fashionable  Ameri 
can  woman  whose  idea  of  France  is  made  up  of  the  Church 
of  the  Sacred  Heart,  the  Convent  of  the  Birds  and  the 
Rue  de  la  Paix.  There  are  quite  as  many  others  who 
go  to  London  for  the  sole  purpose  of  being  received 
at  Court,  and  to  meet  some  of  the  beautiful  duchesses, 
marchionesses  and  countesses  who  set  the  styles  for  many 
of  their  countrywomen  and  join  with  our  equally  beautiful 
Parisiennes  in  deploring  the  contrariness  of  the  age.  At 
that  painful  period  when  the  struggle  was  at  its  height,  — 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  395 

still  more  painful  to  us  French  than  to  Americans,  —  when 
the  convents  had  to  be  closed,  when  the  monks,  white, 
brown  and  black,  had  to  leave  their  monasteries,  and 
especially  when  the  nuns  in  their  white  caps  departed, 
signs  of  sorrow  that  were  natural  and  worthy  of  respect 
were  given.  As  for  the  American  women,  many  of  them 
took  up  arms  for  the  " persecuted  religion"  against  the 
government.  It  was  quite  conceivable  that  they  should 
do  so.  In  common  with  many  other  members  of  the 
French  Parliament,  I  could  have  wished  that  the  laws 
we  voted,  conscientiously  believing  them  to  be  necessary 
in  the  interests  of  France  and  of  civilization,  could  be  put 
into  operation  without  hardship.  I  suffered  a  thousand 
times  more  myself  than  all  the  American  women  who 
blamed  us  for  enforcing  the  law,  as  we  were  bound  to  do. 
I  can  understand  their  sentiment,  but  if  we  are  to  be 
guided  by  such  considerations,  where  are  we  to  draw  the 
line?  Are  we  to  let  France  relapse  into  the  Middle  Ages 
so  as  to  make  it  more  picturesque? 

To  these  now  obsolete  causes  of  the  unpopularity  of 
secular  France  among  a  certain  section  of  American  society, 
we  may  add  the  bad  impression  created  by  those  of  our 
own  newspapers  that  exist  for  the  edification  of  the  same 
society  and  are  the  only  French  newspapers  read  outside 
France.  It  seems  quite  consistent  to  these  journals  to 
excite  the  suspicions  of  good  Frenchmen  in  France  against 
the  foreigner  and,  abroad,  to  hold  France  up  to  contempt 
in  foreign  eyes.  All  this  is  now  ancient  history,  and  things 
are  standing  out  in  their  proper  light.  Americans  are 
discovering  that  they  were  indignant  too  soon.  They  see 
our  failings  and  errors,  often  through  a  magnifying  glass, 
but  they  are  astounded  to  observe  that,  after  all,  France 
is  perfectly  quiet,  that  the  churches  are  celebrating  public 
worship  as  usual,  that  their  bells  are  rung  freely  at  the 
hours  of  service,  that  seminaries  are  being  organized,  that 


396  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

priests  are  appointed  without  interference,  that  bishops 
are  holding  meetings  and  making  triumphal  entries  into 
their  cathedral  cities,  that  there  are  even  public  processions 
duly  authorized  by  the  municipal  councils,  that  hold  up 
the  automobiles  at  the  street  crossings  ! 

Americans  can  thus  see  that  they  have  been  hoaxed,  and 
they  will  not  be  taken  in  a  second  time.  As  regards  es 
sential  principles,  they  are  on  our  side  and  are  compelled 
to  be  there  by  the  mere  force  of  circumstances.  There  is  not 
a  single  one  of  them  who  would  put  up  with  any  undue 
interference  on  the  part  of  the  Vatican  with  the  work  of 
the  American  government,  and  they  are  still  more  united 
than  the  French  in  refusing  to  admit  the  possibility,  in 
the  twentieth  century,  of  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  a  re 
ligion  to  deny  the  right  of  self-government.  This  will  be 
yet  another  service  France  has  rendered  them  by  one  of 
the  experiments  she  carries  out  at  her  own  cost;  but,  at 
the  same  time,  they  will  be  enabled  to  realize  that  it  is 
not  for  France  to  found  the  religion  of  the  future.  One 
might  as  well  try  to  build  a  church  on  ground  cumbered 
with  obstacles,  fortifications  and  ruins  and  already  occupied 
by  a  national  church  that  took  root  centuries  ago  and  has 
successfully  opposed  reform  —  the  "suppressed  Reform" 
from  which  France  is  suffering,  as  an  English  friend  of 
mine  used  to  say.  I  will  go  further  and  say  that  France's 
business  is  to  supply  unity  of  purpose,  inspiration  and 
guidance,  but  not  to  predominate.  She  is  a  connecting 
link,  geographically,  politically  and  morally.  She  ought 
not  to  be  a  church.  She,  too,  holds  her  position  in  the 
world  in  virtue  of  services  rendered,  and  she  endangers 
that  position  whenever  she  attempts  to  predominate. 

The  religion  of  the  future  will  find  its  place  on  the  free 
soil  of  the  United  States,  where  its  churches,  possessing 
neither  roots  in  the  past  nor  ambitious  designs  for  the 
future,  are  giving  up  the  idea  of  opposing  one  another  and 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  397 

are  already  associated  in  friendly  rivalry  with  philan 
thropists  and  an  infinite  variety  of  enterprises  due  to  public 
and  private  benefactors. 

I  have  already  remarked  that  the  development  of  Social 
ism  in  America  is  hampered  by  the  national  activity  in 
philanthropic  works;  and  it  may  find  another  obstacle 
in  joint  action  of  the  churches.  There  is  a  general  com 
petition  in  spontaneous  undertakings  of  this  kind.  Some 
are  colossal  and  some  are  minute,  but  ingenuity,  money 
and  energy  are  devoted  to  all  of  them.  I  am  quite  aware 
that  the  Catholic  church  in  France  does  not  need  these 
examples  from  abroad ;  the  patronages  (clubs  for  youths) , 
the  free  schools  (i.e.  those  not  controlled  by  the 
educational  authority),  the  bowling,  athletic,  shooting, 
music  and  travel  clubs  that  are  being  started  even  in  our 
smallest  villages  are  like  a  great  many  offshoots  of  the 
American  churches.  But  here  again  we  see  the  difference 
between  the  two  countries.  In  America,  such  institutions, 
thanks  to  their  great  variety  of  origin,  excite  no  uneasiness ; 
in  France,  most  of  them  are  Catholic,  and  are  consequently 
opposed  to  the  Republican  regime.  What  makes  it  worse 
is  that  as  the  Republicans  are  much  poorer  and  admittedly 
much  more  economical,  the  great  bulk  of  private  charity 
is  hostile  to  the  government.  Add  to  this  a  large  part  of 
the  Press,  and  American  Catholics  will  perhaps  judge  us 
more  impartially. 

7.   Civic  and  Philanthropic  Works 

I  would  now  like  to  give  a  sketch  of  the  civic  and  phil 
anthropic  works  that  constitute  the  seed  and  the  fruit  of 
American  idealism,  but  they  are  too  numerous.  I  can 
mention  only  a  few,  much  regretting  that  I  am  compelled 
to  omit  many  that  fully  deserve  our  attention.  I  hope  that 
some  writer  with  more  time  than  I  have  will  publish  an. 


39$  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

anthology,  or  roll  of  honor,  containing  a  list  of  these  works. 
It  is  a  monument  that  ought  to  be  erected,  not  by  American 
vanity  but  by  American  belief,  for  the  general  edification 
and  emulation. 


The  Presbyterian  Church  at  Seattle 

I  will  first  refer  to  a  religious  enterprise  that  impressed 
me  particularly  —  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  at  Seattle, 
which  I  have  already  mentioned  in  my  chapter  on  that 
city.  I  must  admit  that  this  church  is  in  an  exceptionally 
favorable  position.  It  is  very  rich,  and  has  a  truly  mag 
nificent  place  of  worship.  What  is  more  important  still, 
its  minister  and  guiding  spirit,  Rev.  A.  Matthews,  is  a  man 
of  exceptional  moral  weight  and  eloquence.  In  1911,  it 
had  thirteen  missions  at  work  in  a  district  which  was  still, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  virgin  soil.  Some  of  them  were 
carried  on  in  mere  huts,  but  all  took  their  share  in  the  active 
work  of  the  mother  church.  The  latter  is  not  to  be  com 
pared  with  the  many  others  that  are  not  nearly  so  well  off 
and  are  only  too  often  afflicted,  according  to  the  degree  of 
latitude  and  the  prosperity  of  the  state,  with  ministers 
who  are  more  than  half  incapable  and  congregations  who  are 
not  even  lukewarm. 

The  Seattle  Presbyterian  Church  is  a  government  in 
itself  and  has  its  own  program.  It  began  by  dividing  the 
city,  where  everything  is  improvised  with  wonderful  speed, 
into  25  districts,  each  subdivided  into  quarters,  all  mapped 
out  so  as  to  divide  the  responsibility  properly.  In  this 
way,  nothing  escapes  the  church,  and  its  work  is  carried 
on  all  over  the  city  instead  of  here  and  there.  I  may  re 
mark,  parenthetically,  that  the  greater  share  in  this  model 
organization  is,  as  usual,  intrusted  to  women,  who  have, 
moreover,  well  earned  their  right  to  a  voice  in  the  govern 
ment  of  the  young  state,  more  than  four  thousand  of  the 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  399 

women  members  of  the  church  being  voters.  Each  of  the 
25  districts  has  its  committee,  consisting  of  a  president, 
vice  president,  secretary,  treasurer  and  members,  all 
women,  whose  names  are  published  in  the  local  directories. 
To  these  we  may  add  occasional  librarians  and  instructors, 
also  women.  All  these  committees  of  men,  women,  girls  and 
young  men  work  quite  independently  and  are  represented 
on  the  general  committees,  which  allot  the  work  according 
to  requirements  and  the  resources  that  each  is  appointed 
to  develop.  It  is  no  light  task.  In  addition  to  public 
worship  and  religious  instruction,  and  Bible  classes  carried 
on  by  voluntary  schools  and  special  clubs,  there  are  the 
committees  of  management,  civic  works  and  organizations 
for  poor  relief  and  general  education.  "I  cannot  do  every 
thing  myself, "  says  the  minister  to  his  flock;  "we  cannot 
cope  with  all  those  who  trust  in  us  to  help  them,  and 
you  must  give  me  all  the  support  you  can,  —  physical, 
mental,  moral,  financial,  social  and  domestic,  religious  and 
spiritual."  With  more  or  less  assistance  —  for  his  is  ob 
viously  the  mind  that  inspires  all  the  others  —  he  has  con 
stituted  his  departments  of  church  work  as  follows :  One 
committee  attends  to  the  proper  organizing  of  national 
celebrations,  another  to  the  newspapers  and  a  third  to 
church  decorations.  A  committee  of  married  women 
carries  out  the  delicate  duty  of  assisting  and  advising  young 
women  who  are  in  want.  There  is  a  general  music  com 
mittee  that  looks  after  the  choirs  and  organ,  engages  sing 
ers,  gets  up  oratorios,  cantatas  and  recitals  from  time  to 
time,  runs  the  Sunday  concerts  and  sees  that  the  programs 
are  suitable.  There  is  also  a  special  music  committee  that 
holds  a  brilliant  concert  every  Thursday  evening.  Some 
times  a  charge  is  made  for  seats,  so  as  to  raise  a  little  money. 
Another  committee  looks  after  Sunday  school  music.  One 
committee  superintends  the  work  of  all  the  others  and  se 
lects  new  members.  Another  examines  the  accounts,  and 


400  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

another  is  responsible  for  the  collections  and  checking  the 
amounts  received.  Thanks  to  the  first-named  vigilant 
general  staff,  the  church,  well  managed  internally,  rich, 
largely  attended  and  respected,  is  able  to  exercise  outward 
influence  through  other  committees  whose  names  suffi 
ciently  indicate  their  duties.  There  is  a  literature  com 
mittee,  to  select  suitable  reading  for  the  members ;  another 
for  helping  the  Japanese,  who  are  very  numerous  at  Seattle ; 
another  for  orphans;  another  for  kindergartens;  another 
for  prisons  and  prisoners,  including  those  just  discharged, 
who  have  to  be  provided  with  work ;  another  to  distribute 
relief  and  find  out  those  who  need  it ;  another  for  fraternity ; 
another  for  introducing  new  members;  another  for  tem 
perance  ;  another  for  the  sailors  on  board  the  ships  in  the 
harbor;  another  for  the  hospitals;  another  committee 
with  a  special  endowment  for  work  among  seamen;  an 
other  to  look  after  the  sick  and  send  them  doctors,  nurses, 
medicines  and  delicacies;  a  helping-hand  committee  to 
give  moral  support  to  weak  characters;  another  to  keep 
the  hotels  in  touch  with  the  church ;  another  for  the  rest 
of  the  churches ;  a  gymnastic  committee  for  men  and  boys ; 
a  physical  culture  committee  for  women;  a  commitee  to 
look  after  children  on  Sundays  while  their  parents  are 
attending  service;  an  art  and  literature  committee;  a 
recreation  committee,  for  playgrounds  and  excursions;  a 
committee  for  the  stores,  and  more  especially  for  the  lum 
bermen,  who,  in  so  immense  a  country,  are  very  lonely ; 
a  friendship  committee  to  restore  harmony  in  the  workshop, 
household  and  city ;  a  committee  for  domestic  science ;  a 
committee  for  sewing  schools ;  another  to  look  after  chil 
dren  whose  parents  are  obliged  to  go  out  to  work  during  the 
day ;  a  committee  to  investigate  the  various  public,  semi- 
public,  philanthropic  or  benevolent  societies  that  need 
support  and  money ;  an  anti-tuberculosis  committee ;  and 
a  health  culture  committee.  There  are  many  more,  but 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  40 1 

I  have  mentioned  enough  to  show  how  the  Americans  or 
ganize  their  church  works  —  by  dint  of  order,  method  and 
division  of  labor,  but  also  by  intelligent  and  devoted  man 
agement. 

Pastor  Matthews 

"Devoted"  is  too  feeble  a  word  to  meet  the  case; 
we  should  rather  say  the  high-minded  enthusiasm  or 
sacred  fire  that  takes  hold  of  a  man  or  woman  and  kindles 
the  same  fire  in  others.  Money,  talents,  health,  physical 
and  moral  energy,  natural  gifts,  ceaseless  activity,  sacrifice 
of  himself  and  his  family  —  all  these  things  does  Minister 
Matthews  use  for  his  purpose  with  a  lavish  hand,  just  as 
stokers,  when  American  competition  was  in  its  infancy, 
were  so  determined  to  "get  there  first"  at  any  cost  that 
they  threw  anything  that  would  burn  into  the  furnace. 
When  I  spoke  beside  this  extraordinary  man,  whom  I  have 
never  seen  since,  I  felt  myself  reduced  to  a  sort  of  fuel,  and 
I  burned  with  all  my  heart  in  front  of  the  audience,  which 
was  burning  too.  While  he  was  introducing  me  to  his 
flock  and  giving  a  brief  and  simple  explanation  of  the  pur 
pose  of  my  journey,  I  watched  him,  and  saw  his  whole  life 
outlined  in  his  speech  and  gestures.  He  was  still  young, 
but  consumed  by  his  own  burning  zeal,  and  his  long,  thin 
frame  was  little  more  than  a  thread.  His  organ- toned 
voice,  however,  was  left,  and  so  were  his  eyes  —  deep-set 
and  fascinating,  full  of  cheerful  confidence  and  contempt 
for  obstacles.  Though  he  did  not  suspect  it,  they  answered 
for  the  success  of  not  merely  his  own  work  but  the  future  of 
a  country  in  which  such  works  are  legion. 

Andrew  Carnegie 

Such  works  are  to  be  found  in  every  department  of  life. 
I  have  already  mentioned  what  Andrew  Carnegie  has  done 
for  peace,  and  have  pointed  out  that  the  mere  giving  of 

2D 


402  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

money  is  only  an  accessory  of  the  effort  to  make  the  under 
taking  produce  really  useful  results  and  extend  its  influence 
far  and  wide  through  every  avenue  of  thought  and  into 
every  country. 

Would  that  I  had  time  to  say  something  about  the  fine 
Scottish  estate  he  bought  at  Dunfermline,  his  native  place, 
and  made  into  a  royal  park,  set  aside  for  future  genera 
tions  !  It  is  more  than  a  park,  and  should  rather  be  de 
scribed  as  a  paradise.  Andrew  Carnegie,  however,  does  not 
stand  unrivaled.  There  are  a  great  many  men  in  the 
United  States  who  vie  with  one  another  in  devoting  the 
best  of  themselves  to  the  work  of  peace.  Among  them  are 
university  presidents,  heads  of  important  banks,  magazines 
and  newspapers  (notably  Mr.  Melville  Stone,  the  head  of 
the  largest  telegraphic  news  agency  in  the  world,  the  Asso 
ciated  Press),  business  men  and  manufacturers. 

Edwin  Ginn 

My  dear  friend,  Edwin  Ginn,  the  well-known  Boston 
publisher,  devoted  the  closing  years  of  his  life  to  assist 
ing  those  willing  workers  who  are  worn  out  by  the 
struggle  against  indifference  and  prejudice.  He,  too,  has 
given  millions  to  found  the  Peace  School  conducted  by 
his  worthy  fellow  worker,  Edwin  Mead.  He  used  to  live 
for  this  work  as  much  as  for  his  own  children.  He  con 
sidered  it  as  one  of  them,  and  he  had  his  reward.  His 
offices  were  in  themselves  a  source  of  satisfaction  to  their 
founder.  All  who  worked  with  him  were  more  or  less  like 
partners  on  confidential  terms  with  him.  It  was  a  pleasure 
to  mix  with  his  typewriters  and  bookkeepers.  The  general 
feeling  was  one  of  cheerfulness  and  confidence.  This  in 
fluential  business  establishment  had  the  serene  atmosphere 
of  a  chapel.1 

xNow  that  Edwin  Ginn  has  passed  away,  I  am  sure  that  nothing  is 
changed  in  the  atmosphere  of  his  office.  He  is  still  there ;  his  mind,  his  in- 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  403 

I  have  already  remarked  that  in  this  country  of  strenu 
ous  life,  gentleness  and  humanity  constantly  crop  up  like 
a  flower  unexpectedly  discovered  on  the  wayside ;  but  I 
have  not  yet  said  that  while  this  flower  brings  joy  to  its 
cultivators,  it  also  brings  wealth  and  progress  to  the  people 
who  profit  by  it ;  for  it  is  to  be  noted  that  those  cities  in 
which  idealism  flourishes  are  the  most  prosperous.  Boston 
is  a  striking  instance.  Nowhere  in  the  United  States  have 
Americans  higher  and  more  generous  ideals  or  a  more  in 
tellectual  and  spiritual  life.  But  nevertheless  Boston's 
material  prosperity  is  advancing  steadily.  In  addition  to 
the  growing  importance  of  its  university  and  its  port,  it 
has  become  a  first-class  agricultural  center.  Its  idealists 
all  raise  and  sell  apples  and  various  other  fruits,  breed  live 
stock  and  produce  any  quantity  of  butter,  cream  and  pre 
serves.  Boston  is  one  of  the  largest  fruit  markets  in  the 
world  —  a  new  center  for  vegetable  food.  Our  French 
railroad  companies  are  advising  our  farmers  to  copy  the 
regular  and  methodical  system  that  has  enabled  American 
and  Canadian  exporters  to  sell  $10,000,000  worth  of 
apples,  in  London  for  instance,  in  1907.  This  is  only  a 
beginning,  and  in  the  meantime  France,  which  supplied  all 
the  New  World  with  Normandy  apple  trees,  and  whose 
fruit  ought  to  fetch  the  highest  prices  with  proper  organiza 
tion,  sold  only  about  $108,000  worth.  This  shows  how 
idealism,  scrupulous  attention  in  every  detail  and  apparent 
disinterestedness  can  bring  about  economic  victories.  The 
secret  is  not  hard  to  guess.  Americans  are  always  learning. 
They  take  the  trouble  to  start  in  and  learn,  quite  simply 
as  I  have  said,  the  best  way  to  gather  apples ;  after  which 
they  take  care  to  grade  the  fruit  properly.  They  select 
only  the  best  for  sale,  wrap  each  one  separately  in  tissue 
paper  and  then  pack  and  forward  them,  so  that  the  buyer 

spiration  have  remained  amongst  his  collaborators.     They   still   continue 
to  work  with  him ;  his  spirit  will  act  after  him  like  a  living  force. 


404  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

knows  what  he  is  getting,  even  before  he  opens  the  case. 
He  relies  on  the  seller's  conscientiousness,  and  trusts  him. 
"The  French  farmer  still  has  to  be  educated  on  this  point," 
writes  our  Orleans  Railway  Co.,  whereas  at  Boston  this 
education  is  finished.  I  mention  this  detail  to  show  that 
idealism  and  practical  business  sense  go  hand  in  hand  in 
the  New  World,  and  that  moral  improvement  multiplies 
material  progress  a  hundredfold,  instead  of  being  a  loss  of 
time,  as  some  believe  it  to  be. 

Scientific  Management 

Manufactures  are  quite  as  prosperous  throughout  this 
part  of  New  England,  thanks  to  the  operation  of  those 
liberal  principles  best  adapted  to  the  interests  both  of 
employers  and  employed.  There  is  a  regular  school  for 
teaching  the  scientific  management  of  factories ;  that  is  to 
say,  how  to  obtain  not  only  the  best  results  from  workmen, 
but  the  greatest  amount  of  satisfaction.  This  is  yet  an 
other  department  in  which  business  men  have  taken  the 
public  interest  to  heart  and  combined  their  experience  and 
their  money  so  as  to  leave  their  country  an  inheritance  of 
prosperity.  I  trust  that  I  shall  not  be  taken  to  mean  more 
than  I  say,  for  I  do  not  propose  to  fall  into  the  mistake  of 
praising  whatever  I  see  abroad  and  undervaluing  France ; 
but  the  more  I  admire  my  own  country,  the  more  exasper 
ated  I  am  to  see  that  it  is  losing  ground  through  its  own  fault. 
I  am  quite  aware  that  the  United  States  have  no  monopoly 
of  benevolent  enterprises.  Praiseworthy  efforts  have  been 
made  and  great  results  attained  by  French  manufacturers. 
Without  counting  what  has  been  done  by  men  still  living, 
Paris  is  covered  with  institutions  bearing  such  respected 
names  as  Cochin,  Lariboisiere,  Boucicault,  etc.,  but  these 
undertakings  might  be  more  numerous ;  they  are  the  rule 
in  the  United  States. 


THE   IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  405 

American  Museums 

It  is  a  matter  of  self-reproach  with  me  to  have  left  out 
American  museums.  I  could  say  a  great  deal  on  this  sub 
ject,  but  it  would  be  like  trying  to  describe  a  world.  As 
a  sample,  we  may  take  the  New  York  Metropolitan  Museum, 
which  is  constantly  being  enlarged  but  is  always  too  small, 
and  into  which  flows  a  stream  of  donations,  amounting  on 
the  average  to  a  thousand  every  month.  It  receives,  not 
merely  donations,  but  advice  and  constant  service  freely 
given,  so  that  it  shall  not  be  an  accumulation  of  collec 
tions,  like  the  Louvre,  but  a  lesson  in  beauty,  art  and  taste 
by  which  the  people  can  profit.  It  is  perhaps  already  too 
late  to  say  that  French  art  is  faced  by  a  great  danger. 
Official  lack  of  backbone  is  lowering  our  taste  —  a  fact 
which  we  are  beginning  to  realize.  The  Americans  have 
taken  the  cream  of  our  masterpieces  and  are  finding  inspira 
tion  in  them,  and  we  had  better  not  reckon  too  much  on 
their  buying  our  second-rate  productions.  It  will  be  with 
art  as  with  manufactures.  Americans  began  by  buying  our 
motors  regardless  of  cost.  They  now  make  standardized 
cars  in  vast  quantities  and  flood  Europe  with  them. 

High  as  is  the  art  standard  of  the  museums,  it  is  small 
in  comparison  with  their  immense  educational  value. 
The  result  is  that  they  are  visited  by  thousands  of  people 
every  day  and,  unlike  what  occurs  elsewhere,  the  majority 
of  these  visitors  consists,  not  of  foreigners,  but  of  Americans. 
Most  of  the  museums  were  due  to  the  generosity  of  private 
individuals,  and  they  are  so  organized  that  a  museum  of 
decorative  art,  for  instance,  raises  the  general  level,  because 
it  shows  some  visitors  their  true  vocation  and  creates  a 
demand  in  others  for  something  better  than  that  to  which 
they  have  hitherto  been  accustomed.  These  museums  are 
founded  and  managed  so  as  to  instruct  the  people  and  the 
country  and  not  to  serve  as  storehouses  for  pictures. 


406  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

A  Model  Farm 

It  is  the  same  with  the  model  farms,  orchards  and  chicken 
farms,  where  I  have  seen  one  man  attend  to  20,000  chickens 
in  incubators.  There  is  general  competition  to  see  who  can 
most  simplify  and  improve  agricultural  methods,  not  only 
for  personal  profit  or  amusement  but  for  the  general  good. 
There  is  one  man,  Mr.  Seth  Low,  formerly  president  of 
Columbia  University,  mayor  of  New  York  and  member  of 
the  Hague  Conference,  who  was  afterwards  invested  with  a 
sort  of  moral  function  in  which  he  excels,  as  arbitrator  in  con 
flicts  between  capital  and  labor.  It  seemed  to  me  that  he  was 
entitled  to  take  a  rest ;  but  a  man  of  action  never  rests,  and 
still  less  in  the  United  States  than  elsewhere.  I  went  to 
see  him  at  his  country  house.  I  found  him  with  his  wife 
—  they  form  one  of  the  model  couples  I  have  described  — 
running  a  model  farm,  Great  Brook  Farm.  I  have  seen 
considerable  progress  accomplished  every  year  by  the 
French  people  and  the  government  itself  in  my  country. 
I  have  also  seen  remarkable  developments  in  England  and 
in  other  European  countries,  and  I  thought  the  United 
States  could  hardly  beat  us  in  this  matter,  except  perhaps 
as  regards  the  size  of  their  undertakings,  but  I  was  mis 
taken.  Brook  Farm  proved  to  be  another  instance  of 
scrupulous  care,  method  and  search  after  perfection  in 
every  detail.  My  visit  to  the  dairy  at  evening  feeding 
time  was  very  instructive.  As  on  our  best  farms,  little 
cars  on  rails  brought  the  impatient  cows  their  supply  of 
sweet-smelling  fodder.  Then  came  a  second  course,  con 
sisting  of  some  kind  of  cake  mixed  with  handfuls  of  salt. 
Two  youths  fed  a  herd  of  about  forty  cows  in  a  quarter  of 
an  hour.  Diagrams  hung  up  in  the  cow  houses  showed  at 
a  glance  how  much  milk  each  animal  produced  per  day. 
There  were  appliances  for  manipulating  the  cream  and  also, 
if  I  am  not  mistaken,  machines  for  making  ice  to  keep  the 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  407 

cream  fresh.  There  were  also  pigsties,  ingeniously  con 
trived  so  that  each  family  could  wallow  or  trot  about  in  the 
enjoyment  of  plenty  of  light,  air  and  freedom.  Everything 
else  was  on  similar  lines.  The  farm  hands  were  all  smart- 
looking  fellows.  One  of  them  was  a  student  in  an  agricul 
tural  college,  and  was  reading  up  for  his  examinations. 
They  all  lived  in  a  club  on  the  farm  —  a  very  clean  little 
two-story  house  with  a  bedroom  for  each  man,  a  bathroom 
and  a  very  pretty  dining-room,  where  there  was  a  white 
cloth  on  the  table. 

I  am  quite  aware  that  Brook  Farm  is  a  very  costly  ex 
periment  and  an  exceptional  case;  but  it  is  a  sample  of 
the  prevailing  spirit  of  healthy  American  emulation  which 
I  have  encountered  everywhere.  I  must,  however,  finish 
with  these  instances  of  public  and  private  initiative  by 
mentioning  the  one  that  strikes  me  as  the  finest,  the  most 
general  and  the  most  national  —  assistance  for  children. 

8.    Children 

Here  again  there  is  no  misconception,  no  charity,  no 
almsgiving  and  no  sentiment.  It  is  the  general  interest 
pointing  out  the  duty  of  every  individual.  Froebel's  fine 
saying  is  an  article  of  faith  with  the  kindergarten  associa 
tion:  "The  destiny  of  nations  is  in  the  hands  of  women 
and  mothers  rather  than  in  those  of  rulers."  Children  are 
national  capital  whose  value  is  generally  recognized,  and 
it  is  well  undertsood  that  this  capital  cannot  become  pro 
ductive  unless  it  makes  a  good  beginning. 

It  is,  therefore,  through  a  sense  of  civic  duty  and  patriot 
ism,  and  with  the  purpose  of  giving  their  country  order  and 
good  health,  that  American  men  and  women  take  an  interest 
in  child-rescue  work.  They  hold  exhibitions,  so  as  to  propa 
gate  ideas  that  may  tend  to  the  welfare  of  children,  in  New 
York,  Kansas  City  and  Chicago,  with  profusely  distributed 


408  AMERICA   AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

illustrated  catalogues  and  magazines.  They  know  quite 
well  that,  without  proper  care  and  shelter,  the  most  promis 
ing  children  are  those  in  the  greatest  danger  and  may  de 
velop  into  criminals.  Society  makes  enemies  of  them 
through  not  knowing  how  to  keep  them  on  its  own  side. 
Instead  of  utilizing  them  as  a  force,  society  lets  them  be 
come  a  source  of  weakness,  in  the  shape  of  vagabonds,  hooli 
gans  and  outcasts,  because  it  began  by  making  them  poor 
and  miserable.  It  knows  very  well  that  the  condition  of 
children  cannot  be  improved  by  sermons,  and  still  less  by 
punishment.  Its  chief  object  is  to  give  them  the  amount  of 
space  and  freedom,  both  materially  and  morally,  that  are 
necessities  of  life  for  all  of  us. 

As  regards  the  moral  side,  Americans  have  not  forgotten 
their  own  varied  origin,  and  they  know  how  much  they 
owe  to  the  complete  freedom  of  action  enjoyed  by  their 
ancestors.  Their  independence  and  their  country  itself 
were  born  of  this  freedom ;  but  now  that  the  New  World  is 
populated  and  more  or  less  Europeanized,  such  independ 
ent  action  is  limited  and  cramped.  What  will  it  become? 
It  will  ferment  and  do  as  much  harm  as  it  formerly  did  good. 
"It  is  a  sad  fact,"  say  the  Americans,  "that  the  qualities 
that  led  to  the  growth  of  our  race  and  enabled  it  to  reach 
its  present  position  are  precisely  those  that  are  most  fatal 
to  children.  We  must  therefore  open  a  credit  account  for 
them,  and  let  them  have  scope  to  expand  and  spontaneously 
utilize  their  energy  for  the  general  good.  To  this  end,  let  us 
learn  the  art  of  governing  children  —  governing  but  not 
spoiling  them." 

Teach  them  to  Play 

"  We  must,  of  course,  love  them,  but  our  first  duty  is  to 
prepare  them  for  their  part  in  life  and  teach  them  not  only 
the  value  of  labor  but  that  of  leisure,  and  show  them  how 
to  play.  This  is  a  new  sort  of  education,  we  may  be  told, 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  409 

that  will  come  of  itself.  Not  at  all ;  it  calls  for  a  great 
deal  of  care  in  the  gradual  substitution  of  discipline  and 
social  contentment  for  the  worst  impulses." 

Their  Need  for  Life,  Space,  Nature,  Quiet 

From  the  material  point  of  view,  the  child  needs  a  great 
deal  of  space,  air,  light,  Nature,  trees,  grass,  flowers,  birds 
and  in  fact  everything  that  has  life.  He  has  an  especial 
need  of  quiet,  so  that  he  may  expand  instead  of  becoming 
timid.  He  must  be  removed  from  the  agitation  of  modern 
life.  These  needs  have  become  an  obsession  even  with 
those  families  who  insist  on  their  children  sleeping  with 
open  windows  (giving  on  to  a  garden  whenever  possible) 
and  whose  members  all  accustom  themselves  to  sleeping  in 
tents  in  the  mountains  and  seeking  the  solitude  of  Nature. 
I  came  to  realize  this  at  Syracuse,  on  discovering  a  baby  only 
only  a  few  months  old  (belonging  to  a  friend  of  ours)  left  to 
itself  like  Moses  in  a  cradle.  It  was  quite  alone  in  its  little 
carriage  at  the  further  end  of  the  park.  When  I  expressed 
my  astonishment,  I  was  told :  "It  is  by  the  doctor's  order. 
Quiet  does  the  baby  a  great  deal  of  good ;  his  mother  excites 
him."  This  is  Nature  reasserting  itself,  and  here  we  see 
the  influence  of  Rousseau.  But  how  are  we  to  give  fresh 
air  and  quiet  to  the  wretched  creatures  that  are  born,  so  to 
speak,  in  the  street,  live  in  it,  and  sleep  in  it  ?  And  what  a 
street !  One  of  the  most  discouraging  problems  of  civiliza 
tion  lies  in  the  great  contrast  between  the  extreme  pros 
perity  of  the  moneyed  classes  and  the  extreme  wretchedness 
and  degradation  of  the  poor.  It  was  to  bring  these  two 
extremes  nearer  that  those  excellent  institutions  known  as 
the  Playground  Associations  came  into  being.  They  have 
already  produced  infinitely  happy  results,  and  promise 
still  more  for  the  future.  Their  founders  were  perfectly 
right.  They  are  working  for  the  generations  to  come,  and 


410  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

they  justly  maintain  that  the  future  of  civilization  is  bound 
up  with  the  success  of  their  gigantic  enterprise.  It  certainly 
is  gigantic. 

Playground  Associations 

The  Playground  Association  has  branches  in  every  city 
that  respects  itself.  They  all  depend  on  private  sub 
scriptions  and  are  managed  exclusively  by  voluntary 
helpers.  The  association  has  its  own  organ,  a  very  interest 
ing  monthly  magazine,  The  Playground.  The  head  office 
is  in  New  York,  at  i  Madison  Avenue,  but  I  saw  the  enter 
prise  at  work  chiefly  in  the  interior  of  the  country,  where  it 
is  supported,  with  a  zeal  that  is  nothing  short  of  passionate, 
by  private  individuals,  municipalities  and  the  nation  in 
general.  It  puts  the  question  bluntly  and  forcibly :  Rec 
reation  is  as  necessary  as  work ;  where  can  the  child  play  ? 
The  reply  is :  Not  even  in  the  street.  It  is  a  prison  that 
stops  his  growth  and  surrounds  him  with  dangers.  You 
must  find  him  the  space  he  needs. 

Tadpoles 

The  old  story  of  tadpoles  —  which  I  have  not  verified 
but  simply  relate  —  is  appropriate  here.  You  take  several 
tadpoles  of  the  same  age  and  size,  and  put  them  in  glass 
bottles  of  different  sizes.  Those  in  the  largest  bottle 
become  the  biggest  and  strongest,  and  those  in  the  smallest 
bottle  become  the  smallest  and  weakest  frogs. 

It  is  the  same  with  children.  If  they  are  weak  and  sickly, 
they  will  eventually  fill  the  hospitals  and  prisons,  and 
prove  very  expensive  to  you,  instead  of  bringing  you  in  a 
return  for  what  you  have  spent  on  them.  In  vain  you 
provide  them  with  children's  courts,  conseils  de  tutelle, 
etc.,  all  very  well  in  their  way  but  insufficient.  You  are 
trying  to  make  up  for  what  you  ought  to  have  prevented. 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  411 

The  result  of  this  movement  is  that  in  every  city  the 
association  has  laid  out  or  set  aside  gardens,  unoccupied 
lots,  sand  heaps,  ponds  in  which  children  disport  them 
selves  in  summer,  gymnasiums,  baths  (in  which  boys  and 
girls  swim  alternately,  under  the  eye  of  the  swimming  in 
structor),  kitchen-gardens,  where  they  try  their  hands  at 
raising  vegetables  and  flowers,  tents  in  which  they  take  ref 
uge  when  the  weather  is  bad,  workshops  where  the  boys 
learn  carpentering,  for  instance,  and  the  girls  are  taught 
to  make  artificial  flowers,  and  where  they  even  play 
parlor  games  and  billiards.  They  have  also  large  halls, 
where  they  learn  to  dance  or  wrestle,  or  listen  to  music, 
and  concerts  are  organized  for  them.  Before  they  reach 
the  concert  period,  they  are  read  to,  but  what  they  get 
is  an  improvement  on  mere  reading,  which  is  apt  to  be 
tiresome.  A  lively  girl  —  cheerfulness,  encouragement 
and  confidence  are  always  made  the  dominant  notes  in 
education  —  stands  in  front  of  all  the  little  folks,  the  girls 
sitting  on  one  side  and  the  boys  on  the  other,  and  tells 
them  stories.  Such  delightful  stories !  How  eagerly  the 
children  listen,  and  how  they  love  to  escape  from  themselves 
into  the  realms  of  imagination !  They  are  also  provided 
with  reading  matter  —  books  and  newspapers  that  will  not 
soil  their  minds  too  soon.  They  are  also  taught  to  sew. 

Excursions.     Bonfires. 

The  happiest  time  is  when  they  are  turned  out  into  a  field 
to  play  at  Indians  and  light  fires.  Americans,  who  have 
burned  many  a  forest,  are  shamed  to  see  punishment  in 
flicted  for  this  instinct,  bequeathed  as  it  is  to  their  children, 
and  they  vaccinate  them  against  it  by  letting  them  light 
camp  fires.  In  the  same  way,  football,  and  especially 
throwing  balls,  turns  the  combative  instinct  into  the  channels 
of  sport. 


412  AMERICA  AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

Excursions  and  holiday  schools  are  also  provided  for 
children,  and  every  effort  is  made  to  exercise  their  activity 
and  give  it  the  largest  possible  amount  of  nourishment 
instead  of  cramping  it.  Their  natural  curiosity  is  antici 
pated. 

John  Brashear 

One  of  those  Americans  whom  I  can  never  forget  is  the 
venerable  Dr.  John  A.  Brashear,  the  descendant  of  a  French 
family  (Brazier) .  He  is  head  of  the  Pittsburgh  Observatory, 
and  he  it  was  who  wrote  this  fine  and  spiritual  epitaph  to  be 
carved  on  the  tomb  to  which  his  wife  had  preceded  him : 
"We  have  so  often  looked  at  the  stars  together  that  we 
are  not  afraid  of  the  night."  He  is  old  in  years  but  as 
active  and  lively  as  a  young  man.  He  is  devoted  to 
children.  Every  week  he  throws  open  his  observatory  to 
them,  and,  with  the  cordiality  and  simplicity  of  the  true 
savant,  does  the  honors  of  the  sky  for  them. 

John  Bigelow 

Another  grand  old  American,  whose  kindness  was  precious 
to  me,  John  Bigelow,  a  thick-and-thin  free  trader,  formerly 
United  States  minister  in  Paris,  died  a  nonagenarian.  I 
saw  him  again  in  New  York  not  long  before  his  death.  He 
had  some  reporters  with  him,  and  was  dictating  strong  and 
eloquent  pleas  for  the  protection  of  women  and  children, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  opening  of  the  fine  New  York  City 
library,  where  there  are  special  reading  rooms  for  children 
only. 

The  Pageant 

At  Pittsburgh,  guided  by  a  mother  who  was  my  good 
genius,  I  saw  something  that  moved  me  more  than  I  can 
describe.  It  was  the  pageant  given  to  the  children  by  the 
Playground  Association  in  the  month  of  May.  All  the 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  413 

school  children  in  the  city,  both  boys  and  girls,  were  con 
veyed,  by  railroad,  street  car,  omnibus,  motor  car,  carts, 
bicycles,  and  in  fact  every  conceivable  means,  to  the 
immense  open-air  arena  where  on  ordinary  occasions  there 
is  a  baseball  crowd  of  40,000  people.  This  time  the  specta 
tors  were  children,  all  in  their  appointed  places,  thanks 
to  marvelous  organization.  I  shuddered  to  think  of  the 
responsibility  of  their  teachers,  but  nothing  happened. 
One  precaution,  which  looked  rather  like  a  threat,  was 
taken  —  it  was  announced  on  placards  that  the  police 
would  take  charge  of  any  child  that  strayed  from  the 
others  when  going  home ;  and  I  did  not  see  a  single  accident. 
The  lame  and  maimed,  some  with  wooden  legs  and  others 
with  crutches,  were  in  front,  on  the  benches  or  in  their 
invalid  chairs. 

What  sort  of  entertainment  could  these  thousands  of 
children  have  come  to  see?  A  play  —  a  gigantic  one 
and  the  actors  were  children  like  themselves.  The  play 
was  a  pretty  story.  It  had  a  moral,  not  for  them,  but  for 
their  parents,  because,  in  the  United  States,  the  failings  of 
the  child  are  the  fault  of  the  parents.  The  play  is  be 
ginning,  and  there  is  dead  silence.  All  the  little  ones  are 
looking  eagerly  at  the  far-off  entrance  to  the  stadium, 
where  we  soon  see  a  handsome  shepherd  come  in,  playing 
his  rustic  pipe,  with  an  accompaniment  by  the  orchestra. 
This  shepherd  (no  other  than  one  of  the  Pittsburgh  young 
women  school-teachers)  is  at  once  seen  to  be  the  hero  of  the 
play.  The  city  represented  by  the  scene  is  swarming  with 
rats,  and  there  is  no  way  of  getting  rid  of  them.  In  vain  the 
councilors  deliberate ;  they  are  utterly  at  a  loss,  and  their 
helplessness  is  amusingly  accentuated  by  the  rats,  which 
frolic  about  in  all  directions  and  brave  them  with  impunity. 
The  rats,  of  course,  are  played  by  small  boys,  each  simply 
but  effectively  costumed  in  a  close-fitting  suit  of  gray 
ending  with  a  tail  and  provided  with  two  sharp-pointed 


414  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

ears,  below  which  the  boy's  delighted  face  is  visible. 
How  they  frolicked  on  all  fours,  ran  after  one  another 
and  knocked  one  another  over !  There  were  more  of  them 
than  I  could  count,  and  with  every  jump  they  gave,  the 
great  galleries  seemed  to  jump  too,  the  whole  crowd  of 
children  shouting,  gesticulating  and  cheering.  There  never 
was  such  fun ! 

The  town  councilors,  however,  finally  make  up  their 
minds  to  do  something.  They  send  for  the  piper,  who 
knows  how  to  charm  the  rats,  and  strike  a  bargain  with  him 
to  attract  the  vermin  to  the  river,  where  they  will  all  be 
drowned.  The  piper  plays  his  most  fascinating  tune  and 
all  the  rats  follow  him.  Every  one  knows  the  old  legend 
that  was  the  subject  of  Browning's  poem,  and  how  ungrate 
ful  the  councilors  were.  Having  got  rid  of  the  rats, 
they  fail  to  keep  their  promise,  refuse  to  pay  the  price 
agreed  upon  and  begin  to  haggle.  Whereupon,  to  punish 
them,  the  piper  goes  off  playing  again,  and  this  time  all 
the  children  in  the  wicked  town  follow  him.  Here  begins 
the  American  moral,  the  second  part  of  the  pageant. 

The  migrant  children  are  far  from  complaining.  They 
are  quite  happy,  in  fact  much  happier  than  they  were  at 
home,  because  they  have  found  a  playground.  We  see 
them  running  about,  dancing,  and  singing  in  company  with 
flowers,  butterflies,  frogs,  birds  and  other  creatures,  repre 
sented  by  other  children  in  costume.  Then  the  piper  con 
fines  his  revenge  to  summoning  the  parents  to  see  how 
their  children  are  enjoying  themselves.  The  climax  comes 
with  the  arrival  of  the  parents,  and  their  discovery  of  the 
pure  joys  of  Nature,  of  which  they  were  ignorant ;  and  a  new 
life  begins  for  children,  parents  and  the  whole  country. 
They  all  go  back  to  the  city  together  with  the  piper,  singing 
"Liberty,  peace  and  purity,"  in  chorus. 

The  galleries  then  empty  to  the  strains  of  the  "  Playground 
March,"  and  the  contents  of  the  whole  reservoir  of  youth 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  415 

stream  out  of  the  numerous  wide  portals  towards  the 
place  where  the  vehicles  are  waiting  to  take  every  one 
home. 

I  congratulated  and  thanked  those  who  organized  this  chil 
dren's  meeting.  He  would  be  very  blind  who  could  fail  to  see 
the  greatness  of  the  service  they  render  and  the  incalculable 
effect  of  these  new  works,  which  have  extended  so  rapidly 
all  over  the  United  States,  where  they  are  regenerating  the 
children,  and,  through  them,  the  parents.  The  good  they 
do  is  not  limited  to  a  single  country.  It  is  contagious,  and 
goes  far  afield.  This  contagion  is  general  in  England  and 
particularly  in  Germany  and  Scandinavia.  In  France,  it  is 
already  noticeable.  It  coincided  with  the  progress  of 
liberty  and  peace,  with  legislation  for  the  protection  of 
labor,  with  the  triumph  of  our  roads  and  the  revival  of 
athletic  sports,  cycling,  motoring  and  aviation.  It  is 
an  unsuspected  revolution  which  will  react  upon  people's 
minds,  bodies  and  habits.  It  will  discipline  us  and  supply 
us  with  the  public  spirit  now  lacking.  Playground  asso 
ciations  are  already  trying  to  begin  operations  and  make 
their  voices  heard  in  Paris,  where  the  fortifications  are  to 
be  done  away  with  and  replaced  by  a  ring  of  public  parks. 
Football  has  become  acclimatized  wonderfully  quickly, 
and  baseball  will  soon  follow.  It  is  less  easy  to  found 
city-garden  associations  and  those  whose  objects  are 
children's  gardens,  eugenics,  open  spaces,  sanitation  and 
the  transformation  of  cities ;  but  though  progress  is  slow, 
it  undoubtedly  exists.  New  questions  are  arising  every  day 
and  forcing  themselves  on  the  attention  of  the  public  author 
ities  and  parliament.  The  struggle  for  improving  the  status 
of  women  and  children  and  supporting  those  who  need  pro 
tection  has  ceased  to  be  mere  talk.  The  movements  against 
tuberculosis,  drink,  immorality  and  the  white  slave  traffic 
were  for  a  long  time  merely  platonic,  but  are  now  popular 
and  will  soon  be  national,  just  as  mutual  aid  associations, 


41 6  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

old-age  pensions  and  assistance  and  preventive  hygiene,  in 
preference  to  the  old-fashioned  charitable  remedies,  are 
flourishing.  Cheap  transport  for  workmen  between  cities 
and  suburbs,  the  elimination  of  unsanitary  houses,  the 
building  of  workmen's  dwellings,  the  constitution  of  family 
trusts,  and  many  similar  ideas  are  taking  root. 

The  Light  of  Truth 

These  signs  of  progress  cannot  be  confined  to  one  country. 
They  will  expand,  like  light  and  truth,  far  beyond  frontiers. 
They  will  soon  spread  out  and  tend  to  settle  down  in  the 
most  civilized  countries,  whose  example  the  others  will 
follow.  The  mere  force  of  circumstances  will  impel  all 
these  national  associations  to  exchange  ideas.  They  will 
need  one  another,  and  will  combine,  just  as  the  Olympic 
committees,  for  instance,  have  done.  This  does  not  yet 
constitute  unity  and  fraternity,  but  it  is  at  any  rate  emula 
tion,  and  often  it  amounts  to  comradeship  and  friendship. 
Each  of  these  associations  has  its  country,  but  they  all 
have  the  same  ideal.  Beginning  by  bringing  the  young 
together,  they  will  have  men  of  full  age  on  their  side  as  time 
goes  on,  and  finally  the  old.  Unintentionally,  perhaps,  but 
with  an  efficacy  which  will  be  all  the  more  irresistible, 
they  will  pave  the  way  for  a  new  era  in  international  rela 
tions.  They  will  not  allow  governments  to  declare  war 
lightly. 

The  Christian  Command 

These  are  great  changes  that  foreshadow  others,  still 
greater.  A  religion  is  coming  into  the  world.  It  is  growing 
up  with  childhood  and  through  childhood,  respecting  every 
human  being's  rights  and  working  for  those  least  able  to 
help  themselves.  It  is  for  liberty,  justice  and  duty.  This 
religion  will  let  some  of  the  others  live  and  some  die.  It 


THE  IDEALISTIC  MOVEMENT  417 

will  be  so  profoundly  human  that  it  will  not  even  need  a 
name.  It  will  imply  a  common  faith  in  what  is  good.  It 
will  be  the  religion  that  will  separate  us  less  than  any  other, 
and  also  the  one  that  will  most  faithfully  apply  the  truly 
Christ-like  saying:  "Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto 


CHAPTER  XV 

COMPETITION 

i .  PITTSBURGH  :  Production.  The  circulation  of  things,  men  and  ideas. 
Fort  Duquesne.  Fort  Pitt.  Pittsburgh.  Gas,  coal  and  wheat  one 
above  the  other.  Blast  furnaces.  The  apotheosis  of  initiative. 
Conveyance  by  land  and  water.  —  2.  AMERICANS  AGAINST  AMERI 
CANS  :  Pittsburgh's  competitors.  Chicago.  Railroads  and  canals. 
The  Erie  Canal.  Duluth.  Roads.  La  Salle  Creek.  Disciplining 
Niagara.  Education  by  gentleness.  Collective  labor.  Another 
moving  house.  Unloading  ore  automatically  at  Buffalo.  —  3.  COM 
PETITION  FROM  CANADA  :  The  two  banks  of  the  Niagara.  Revenge 
after  prolonged  disdain.  A  clear  field.  Four  months  of  hot 
weather.  The  population  of  Canada.  Agriculture.  Motoculture. 
Pere  Monnier.  Three  transcontinental  railroads.  Navigation  on 
rivers,  canals  and  lakes.  Hudson  Bay.  Our  slowness.  The 
port  of  Brest.  The  armed  peace  system.  A  century  of  peace  be 
tween  England  and  America.  Contagious  dreadnought  fever.  — 
4.  UNIVERSAL  COMPETITION:  The  West  Indies.  South  America. 
The  African  continent.  From  the  Nile  to  the  Zambesi.  From 
Morocco  to  the  Cape.  Asia.  Turkey.  American  ignorance  of 
Russia.  A  Canada  in  Europe  and  Asia.  Competition  from  old 
countries.  Great  and  small  powers.  Scandinavia.  Americans 
between  two  fires. 

i.  Production 

THE  general  idealistic  movement,  indications  of  which  I 
found  wherever  I  went,  and  the  philanthropic  competition 
in  which  universities,  churches,  states,  cities,  individuals 
and  public  and  private  associations  are  engaged,  involve 
not  only  a  great  deal  of  enthusiasm  but  the  expenditure 
of  a  great  deal  of  money.  Idealism  is  like  an  investment 
that  swallows  up  a  large  amount  of  capital  without  any  pros- 

418 


COMPETITION  419 

pect  of  immediate  results.  It  pays,  and  pays  splendidly, 
but  only  in  proportion  to  the  outlay  of  capital  and  effort, 
and  these  the  Americans  supply  with  a  lavish  hand.  They 
realize  that  a  new  country  is  like  a  child  from  whom  nothing 
can  be  reasonably  expected  unless  he  has  been  nourished, 
strengthened  and  taught;  the  more  you  spend  on  him, 
the  more  he  will  be  able  to  do  in  the  future,  but  in  the  future 
only.  The  Americans  are  trying  to  make  this  future  as 
little  distant  as  possible.  They  began  in  a  state  of  feverish 
impatience.  They  have  now  reached  the  stage  in  which 
they  are  profiting  by  their  experience  and  making  methodi 
cal  arrangements  to  meet  their  needs.  They  are  already 
living  on  a  large  scale  and  are  preparing  to  make  it  even 
larger.  The  main  point  is  to  increase  their  productive 
capacity,  because  the  consumer's  demands  are  steadily 
increasing,  and  while  the  output  is  growing  at  the  rate  of 
40  per  cent,  the  consumption  has  risen  60  per  cent.  As  we 
have  seen,  every  one  is  engaged  more  or  less  successfully  in 
getting  everything  possible  out  of  the  earth,  and  under  it, 
without  exhausting  its  resources.  Produce  varies  according 
to  latitude,  but  is  abundant  everywhere.  In  one  region 
there  are  corn,  wheat,  barley  and  potatoes ;  in  another, 
cotton,  rice,  sugar  and  tobacco;  in  another,  northern 
varieties  of  fruit,  farm  and  dairy  produce,  animal  food  in 
all  sorts  of  forms,  canned  meat,  leather,  hides,  etc. ;  in 
another,  ores  —  iron,  copper,  lead,  coal,  petroleum  and 
precious  metals ;  in  another,  cotton  goods  and  the  products 
of  a  young  and  growing  industry  keenly  on  the  lookout  for 
novelties  —  from  cars,  locomotives,  motors  and  pianos 
to  agricultural  machinery,  typewriters,  calculating  ma 
chines  and  the  implement  with  which  no  other  can  compare 
for  varied  utility  —  the  machine  tool,  which  reduces  the 
work  of  years  to  hours  and  takes  the  place  of  thousands 
of  horses,  millions  of  arms  and  hands  and  delicate  fingers,  as 
well  as  of  workers  of  both  sexes  in  the  factories  and  fields. 


420  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

Finally  I  must  mention  steel  rails,  already  forming  an  im 
mense  network  larger  than  the  whole  extent  of  railroads  in 
Europe.  Production,  in  fact,  is  only  the  first  step.  The 
produce  has  to  be  sold,  put  into  circulation  and  brought 
to  market.  This  is  the  great  secondary  effort  that  must 
be  made.  A  good  circulation  of  things,  human  beings  and 
ideas  —  the  three  are  inseparable  —  is  to  a  country  what 
the  circulation  of  the  blood  is  to  the  body.  I  believe  Ameri 
cans  understand  this  better  than  we  French  do.  The 
social,  intellectual  and  economic  life  of  the  United  States 
is  made  up  of  unlimited  fresh  air. 

The  Circulation  of  Things,  Men  and  Ideas 

It  was  at  Pittsburgh  that  I  best  understood  this  double 
need  of  production  and  circulation,  although  it  is  perhaps 
less  urgent  here  than  in  some  of  the  other  new  cities  I 
have  described.  The  reason  is  that  it  has  existed  long 
enough  at  Pittsburgh  to  have  raised  all  the  questions  in 
separable  from  the  development  of  a  great  industrial  city. 
It  was  at  Pittsburgh,  as  every  one  knows,  that  one  of  the 
most  serious  and  sanguinary  strikes  in  the  United  States 
occurred.  It  is  there  that  the  disputes  between  employers  and 
workmen  are  perhaps  the  hardest  to  settle,  though  they  can 
no  longer  be  called  the  most  acute ;  it  is  there  that  the  an 
tagonism  between  white  and  black  labor  seemed  to  me  to  be 
the  strongest ;  it  is  there  that  Socialism  takes  advantage 
of  the  spread  of  instruction  to  carry  on  active  propaganda, 
and  it  is  also  there  that  philanthropy  and  public  spirit 
put  forth  their  greatest  efforts. 

Fort  Duquesne.     Fort  Pitt.     Pittsburgh 

During  my  tour  in  1907,  I  stayed  longer  at  Pittsburgh 
than  anywhere.  I  again  spent  some  time  there  in  1911, 


COMPETITION  421 

at  the  end  of  my  long  journey,  being  detained  by  the  charms 
of  family  hospitality  and  by  the  necessity  of  putting  my 
notes  and  observations  into  order.  And  then  Pittsburgh 
is  such  a  fine  city !  Though  its  history  goes  back  a  century 
and  a  half,  this  great  city  is  only  at  the  beginning  of  its 
development.  We  can  see  this  by  the  way  in  which  its 
new  houses  are  spreading  over  the  hills  towards  the  great 
open  spaces  of  Shenley  Park;  by  its  immense  educational 
establishments,  erected  by  a  generous  municipality  on  sites 
not  yet  invaded  by  the  home-builder ;  by  its  numerous  and 
imposing  public  institutions  of  a  kind  usually  found  only 
in  cities  with  centuries  of  maturity ;  by  its  great  business 
activity  and  its  citizens'  manner  of  life ;  by  the  number  of 
young  men  and  girls  who  attend  its  magnificent  institute 
and  technical  schools ;  and  by  the  plenitude  of  its  offspring, 
as  shown  by  its  universities,  schools  and  playground.  It 
is  all  ferment,  fire  and  fumes;  it  is  the  vanguard  of  the 
vanguard.  Was  it  not  intended  by  its  origin  and  its  geo 
graphical  position  to  play  this  important  part?  Its  loca 
tion,  like  that  of  St.  Louis  and  many  other  cities,  was 
selected  by  our  pioneers,  and,  of  course,  as  usual,  other 
nations  reaped  the  harvest.  The  first  settlement  on  this 
site  was  Fort  Duquesne,  whose  name  was  changed  by  the 
English  and  became  Fort  Pitt,  whence  came  the  present 
name,  Pittsburgh.  There  could  not  be  a  better  place 
than  such  a  steep  promontory  —  a  spur  of  rock  and  iron, 
a  bowl  fashioned  by  two  rivers  that  combine  to  form  the 
great  highways  of  the  Ohio.  Between  these  three  rivers, 
on  whose  bosom  it  seems  to  sail,  Pittsburgh  lifts  its  head 
proudly  and  follows  the  great  stream  that  leads  from  the 
Atlantic  and  the  Allegheny  Mountains  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
and  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 

Watercourses,  however,  are  not  enough  for  Pittsburgh. 
It  needs  a  newer  kind  of  river  —  steel  rivers,  faster  and 
more  numerous  than  those  provided  by  Nature ;  and  these 


422  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

new  rivers  spring  from  its  own  entrails.  The  subsoil  of 
Pennsylvania  is  full  of  riches,  especially  coal,  oil  and 
natural  gas.  Below  the  wheat  fields  are  coal  fields,  and 
still  further  down  are  the  petroleum  reservoirs.  Coal  crops 
out  almost  under  one's  feet.  It  is  found  when  new  streets 
are  being  laid  out  or  when  the  foundations  of  houses,  are 
being  excavated. 

It  was  thus  that  Pittsburgh  became  a  great  manufacturing 
center,  with  ironworks  producing  vast  quantities  of  pig 
iron  to  be  afterwards  transformed  into  steel  of  every  con 
ceivable  kind.  Thousands  of  miles  of  long  rails  issue 
from  the  rolling  mills  and  extend,  like  great  arms  stretched 
parallel,  all  over  the  continent,  pick  up  the  ore  for 
the  ever  hungry  mills  and  bring  it  to  Pittsburgh.  The 
ore  is  found  principally  to  the  northwest,  at  the  end  of 
Lake  Superior  —  "Fond  du  Lac"  —around  Duluth  (Du- 
Lude),  another  privileged  center,  where  iron  ore  is  so  pro 
digiously  abundant  that  it  can  be  taken  up  by  machinery 
almost  on  the  surface  of  the  ground.  The  machine  has  a 
long  arm,  which  can  be  moved  in  any  direction  by  one 
man ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  arm  there  is  a  strange  kind  of 
gigantic  hand  that  combines  the  uses  of  pick,  shovel  and 
spoon  in  one,  that  digs  into  the  ore,  seizes  it,  carries  it  off 
and  piles  it  up  in  the  basin-shaped  cars  of  an  immense  train 
to  which  fresh  cars  are  constantly  added.  When  the  train 
can  hold  no  more,  it  goes  and  empties  itself  automatically 
from  the  top  of  the  wharf  into  the  holds  of  the  boats  plying 
on  the  Great  Lakes.  I  do  not  suppose  that  the  combined 
use  of  trains  and  boats  has  ever  been  better  understood  than 
at  Duluth,  where  each  loads  the  other.  There  are  many 
photographs  I  would  like  to  publish  in  support  of  my 
impressions,  but  not  one  would  be  more  striking  than  that 
of  these  immense  ore  docks,  showing  the  boats  moored 
alongside  of  a  great  timber  framework  three  stories  high. 
On  top  of  this  structure  is  a  long  gallery  over  which  the 


COMPETITION  423 

trains  run,  pouring  a  constant  stream  of  ore  into  the  boats, 
like  water  from  a  tank.  These  boats  make  their  way 
through  Lake  Huron  to  Lake  Erie  and  discharge  their  con 
tents  into  other  trains  at  Cleveland,  whence  the  ore  is  taken 
to  Pittsburgh.  Here  again  we  find  a  combination  of  river 
and  railroad  transit;  for  Pittsburgh  is  a  great  riverside 
port  —  too  often  flooded,  like  most  of  the  towns  in  the 
Mississippi  valley. 

Blast  Furnaces 

At  Pittsburgh  there  is  a  great  emptying  of  trains  and 
boats  full  of  ore,  coal,  limestone  and  everything  else 
required  by  the  ironworks,  which  divide  them  up,  turn 
on  the  flames  of  natural  gas,  put  the  metal  through  blast 
furnaces,  cast,  hammer  and  forge  it,  lighting  up  the  mid 
night  sky  with  a  lurid  glow  as  different  as  possible  from  the 
starry,  unsullied  heavens  that  shone  over  Fort  Duquesne. 
Our  pioneers'  dreams  have  literally  ended  in  smoke ;  but, 
beyond  the  dreams  and  behind  the  smoke,  realities  are 
coming  into  being.  And  they  are  realities  indeed :  an 
outrush  of  burning  energy,  a  burst  of  tremendous  vitality 
from  the  ground  fertilized  by  the  genius  of  mankind,  a 
constant  movement  in  all  directions,  north  and  south, 
east  and  west,  power  and  speed  in  every  form  —  the 
apotheosis,  in  fact,  of  the  river.  The  smoke,  lit  up  by  the 
glare  from  the  furnaces,  is,  as  it  were,  the  river's  breath, 
rising  like  incense  to  the  sky.  It  is  the  apotheosis  of 
initiative. 

The  Apotheosis  of  Initiative 

An  exclamation  of  admiration  for  what  man  has  accom 
plished  rises  to  the  lips  of  the  traveler  who  views  this 
spectacle  —  a  cry  of  admiration,  mingled  with  confidence 
in  the  future  of  a  nation  which,  although  so  young,  has 
already  contrived  to  carry  its  organization  to  such  a  point. 


424  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Pittsburgh  has  built  furnaces  and  grappled  with  problems, 
and  both  the  one  and  the  other  help  to  accentuate  the 
extreme  need  for  education  and  for  organization  —  social, 
municipal,  collective  or  private  —  without  which  all  these 
forces  would  produce  nothing  but  disorder  and  anarchy. 
"  We  have  utilized  earth,  air,  water  and  fire,  but  now  comes 
the  essential  point :  utilizing  men  and  children."  This  is 
the  duty  of  to-morrow.  One  of  my  fellow  members  of 
the  French  parliament,  who  was  present,  like  myself,  in 
1907,  at  this  display  of  Pittsburgh's  active  spirit  of  emula 
tion,  exclaimed:  "I  should  not  be  sorry  for  our  sons  if 
they  had  to  live  here."  Thousands  of  others  in  the  United 
States  have  echoed  this  sentiment,  which  conveys  a  great 
deal. 

But  it  is  time  to  return  to  the  main  question.  It  is  dif 
ficult  to  decide  which  of  these  great  streams  of  water,  coal, 
iron  or  steel  should  be  selected  for  examination,  but  I  must 
try  to  profit  by  the  great  object  lesson  I  have  before  my 
eyes,  and  make  my  country  profit  by  it  too. 

Transport  by  Land  and  Water 

We  have  seen  that  the  processes  of  thought,  action,  work 
and  production  are  only  a  beginning  —  the  mere  preparation 
of  the  undertaking.  What  is  wanted  now  is  to  bring  about 
exchanges,  put  produce  in  circulation,  obtain  customers  and 
establish  business  relations.  We  have  a  superabundance 
of  natural  resources,  and  what  we  need  is,  emphatically, 
means  of  transport.  The  greatest  effort  of  our  time  is  in 
this  direction.  Every  country  feels  the  need  of  a  moral, 
intellectual  and  economic  tie,  and  there  is  a  corresponding 
need  for  another  and  material  link  in  the  shape  of  new 
forms  of  transport.  Man  is  no  longer  willing  to  admit  that 
there  shall  be  any  unknown  territories  that  cannot  be 
crossed,  or  seas  that  cannot  be  sailed.  He  cuts  through 


COMPETITION  425 

mountains  and  isthmuses,  and  girdles  continents  and  oceans 
with  innumerable  trains  and  steamers.  Owing  to  the 
miracles  of  science  and  the  progress  of  education,  the  de 
velopment  of  every  country  and  its  political,  administrative 
and  commercial  organization  has  become  a  question  of 
transports.  The  Eastern  question  would  have  been  settled 
long  ago,  at  very  little  expense  and  to  the  great  advantage 
of  all  concerned,  had  the  European  powers,  instead  of 
being  divided  against  themselves,  agreed  to  establish  means 
of  communication  all  over  European  Turkey.  They  would 
have  given  life  and  activity  to  vital  forces  that  have  been 
marking  time  for  centuries,  simply  on  account  of  their 
constant  antagonism.  The  powers  would  have  done  honor 
to  themselves  by  creating  a  Balkanic  Confederation  stronger 
than  the  one  they  blindly  compelled  to  rise  in  revolt  and 
force  itself  upon  the  world.1  Let  us  hope  that  the  lesson 
will  not  be  thrown  away.  It  is  still  possible  to  bring  about 
great  and  desirable  changes  by  means  of  concerted  action 
for  the  development  of  the  African  continent.  This  is  a 
work  that  may  lead  the  European  powers  to  sink  their 
differences. 

As  I  have  often  stated,  in  the  French  parliament  and 
abroad,  the  furtherance  of  peace  is  intimately  bound  up 
with  the  increase  of  transport  facilities.  With  great 
interest  I  saw  how  the  problem  presented  itself  at  Pitts 
burgh,  and  how  it  was  being  solved.  Thousands  of  tons 
of  steel  are  being  cast  every  day.  The  railroad  system 
has  already  cost  $16,000,000,000,  without  reckoning  the 
value  of  the  land.  It  is  only  half  finished,  seeing 
that  the  western  and  southern  parts  of  the  United 
States  are  still  more  or  less  undeveloped.  Over  50,000 
locomotives,  the  heaviest  of  which  weigh  250  tons,  and 

1  This  argument  has  been  developed  in  my  introduction  to  the  report  of 
the  commission  of  inquiry  constituted  by  the  Carnegie  Endowment  on  the 
Balkan  Wars.  Washington :  2  Jackson  Place. 


426  AMERICA   AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

over  2,000,000  freight  cars  (much  larger  than  ours,  seeing 
that  a  single  car  can  carry  as  much  as  50  tons,  making  2500 
tons  for  a  train  of  50  cars)  are  running  on  this  system,  and 
yet  there  are  not  enough.  That  this  is  only  a  beginning  is 
shown  by  the  number  of  steel  cargo  boats  that  are  being  built 
at  Pittsburgh  for  the  rivers,  canals  and  inland  bays,  by  the 
fact  that  the  Minneapolis  mills  sometimes  have  to  wait 
weeks  for  their  grain,  and  by  Mr.  Hill's  statement  at  St. 
Paul  that,  while  the  railroads  are  extending  at  the  rate  of 
27  per  cent,  the  traffic  is  growing  to  the  extent  of  148  per 
cent.  We  might  thus  conclude  that  the  development 
of  Pittsburgh  is  unlimited  and  that  this  city  has  quite  a 
monopoly  of  the  steel  supply,  together  with  all  the  privileges 
that  make  success  certain.  Pittsburgh  stands  unrivaled. 
This  was  my  conviction  in  1907. 


2.   Americans  versus  Americans 

In  1911,  I  made  a  careful  inspection  of  the  north  of  the 
United  States  and  the  states  of  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin. 
I  met  men  who  knew  the  facts.  I  stopped  at  the  principal 
ports  on  the  Great  Lakes.  I  spoke  at  meetings  of  chambers 
of  commerce.  When  I  returned  to  France,  a  savant  asked 
me,  with  a  tinge  of  irony,  what  I  could  possibly  have  found 
to  talk  about.  What  I  did  was  to  discuss  questions  that 
interested  my  hearers,  and  in  this  way  I  was  enabled  to 
understand  the  situation  better.  I  can  hardly  think  my 
system  was  a  bad  one,  seeing  that  my  time  was  too  short 
to  respond  to  the  urgent  invitations  I  received  from  all 
the  great  manufacturing  associations.  I  noticed,  to  begin 
with,  that  Chicago  is  entering  into  competition  with  Pitts 
burgh.  As  we  know,  Chicago  has  it  sport  on  the  lake,  and  it 
has  built  its  own  steel  works,  to  which  the  ore  is  brought  in 
boats  from  Duluth,  thus  eliminating  railroad  haulage. 


COMPETITION  427 

Pittsburgh's  Competitors.    Chicago 

"That  doesn't  matter  to  us,"  reply  the  Pittsburgh  steel 
magnates.  "  Chicago  has  to  send  for  its  coal,  which  we  have 
practically  on  the  spot.  The  result  is  the  same."  "Not 
at  all,"  say  the  Chicago  men ;  "it  costs  us  less  to  bring  our 
coal  than  you  have  to  pay  for  the  freight  of  your  ore,  and 
you  have  to  pay  freight  for  coal  too,  the  only  difference 
being  that  ours  travels  farther  than  yours  —  a  very  small 
matter,  as  the  loading  and  unloading  cost  more  than  the 
haulage,  over  a  short  distance.  We  have  therefore  a  very 
considerable  advantage  over  you  in  not  being  obliged  to 
convey  our  ore  by  rail,  and  this  advantage  is  bound  to  give 
us  the  upper  hand  in  the  long  run." 

Here  we  see  the  beginning  of  a  national  competition  and 
a  great  struggle,  to  the  general  advantage.  The  greater 
the  output  of  the  steel  for  which  the  world  of  to-day  has 
so  many  uses,  the  cheaper  and  the  more  abundant  it  will  be. 

Railroads  and  Canals 

To  complete  the  adjustment  of  my  mental  focus,  I  went 
from  Chicago  to  Buffalo,  from  Lake  Michigan  to  Lake 
Erie  and  Lake  Ontario.  There  I  had  a  vision  of  the  future 
—  not  merely  that  of  the  United  States  but  of  the  world. 
I  saw  the  progress  of  transportation  realized  in  three  stages, 
each  of  which  was  a  completion  of  the  other.  First  of 
all  came  the  railways  that  miraculously  linked  the  states 
together  and  populated  them.  Next  came  the  network 
of  electric  cars  around  the  cities  (the  line  that  gets  its 
power  from  Niagara  Falls  and  follows  both  the  Canadian 
and  American  sides  of  the  river  is  a  marvel).  The  cars 
themselves  have  to  compete,  in  the  cities,  with  underground 
or  overhead  lines,  and  motor  omnibuses.  Finally  comes 
inland  navigation,  which  fell  behind  in  the  United  States, 


428  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

just  as  it  did  in  Europe.  Here  we  see  the  leveling  effect 
of  progress.  The  railways  are  congested,  and  have  come  to 
regard  inland  navigation  as  an  auxiliary  rather  than  a  rival. 
Out  of  50,000  miles  of  navigable  rivers  in  the  United  States, 
25,000  miles  are  still  unutilized,  and  out  of  about  5000 
miles  of  canals,  half  are  more  or  less  in  use,  without  counting 
3000  miles  of  straits  and  bays,  so  that,  in  all,  there  is  trans 
port  over  about  60,000  miles  of  water,  in  addition  to  250,000 
miles  of  railway.  About  half  the  canals  were  abandoned  in 
1840  and,  more  recently,  between  1880  and  1906,  before 
the  great  crisis  and  during  the  railroad  fever.  They  are 
too  narrow  for  modern  tonnage,  and  their  equipment  is 
out  of  date. 

Canals  in  the  United  States  unfortunately  came  into 
existence  only  a  short  time  before  railway  construction 
began,  whereas  in  France,  and  in  Europe  generally,  they 
had  long  formed  part  of  the  national  systems  of  communica 
tion.  The  United  States  have  missed,  or  have  endangered 
their  possession  of,  an  advantage  to  which  Nature  intended 
them  to  be  entitled.  Few  countries  are  so  well  provided  as 
theirs  with  a  system  of  navigable  waterways  so  favorable 
to  the  conveyance  of  heavy  goods  by  slow  freight.  The 
Mississippi,  flowing  from  the  Canadian  frontier  to  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  over  a  distance  of  5750  miles  (the  Danube 
is  only  1875  and  the  Loire  barely  650  miles  long),  ought  to 
be  the  great  central  artery  with  its  44  tributaries,  notably 
the  Missouri,  the  Red  River,  the  Arkansas  and  the  Ohio. 
The  Pacific  coast  is  not  so  well  supplied,  but  nevertheless 
has  the  Sacramento  and  the  majestic  Columbia.  The  tribu 
taries  to  the  Atlantic  are  numerous,  commencing  with  the 
Hudson.  River  navigation,  however,  is  irregular,  risky 
and  impossible  at  various  times  of  the  year ;  it  is  subject 
to  risings,  which  are  sometimes  disastrous,  to  drought  and 
to  ice.  For  these  reasons,  the  Americans  originally  went 
in  largely  for  canals,  which  became  the  fashion,  in  an 


COMPETITION  429 

economic  and  financial  sense.  Canal  sections  were  built 
here  and  there,  to  meet  the  requirements  of  states  and 
private  industries.  It  was  all  done  too  quickly  and  without 
supervision  or  any  general  plan.  Michel  Chevalier  and 
Vetillard  have  shown  in  their  valuable  works  what  this 
disorganized  undertaking  was.  The  amount  of  money  ex 
pended  upon  it  has  been  estimated  at  nearly  $600,000,000. 

Erie  Canal 

The  first  canal  was,  and  still  is,  a  success.  It  starts 
from  Lake  Erie,  follows  the  south  side  of  Lake  Ontario, 
and  connects  the  rich  region  of  the  Great  Lakes  with 
the  navigable  waterway  of  the  Hudson  and  the  port  of 
New  York.  The  need  of  this  canal  was  felt  as  far  back 
as  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  rivalry 
between  French  and  English  was  at  its  height,  and  when  the 
Hudson  was  trying  to  compete  with  the  St.  Lawrence  as 
the  principal  outlet  for  Western  produce ;  but  it  was  planned 
on  too  small  a  scale  and  had  to  be  begun  afresh.  The  real 
canal  was  provided  for  by  a  law  passed  April  17,  1817,  and 
was  opened  in  1825.  It  set  an  example  which  was  followed 
by  the  states  of  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  New  Jersey  and  others. 
It  was  a  distinct  factor,  writes  Pierre  Bastian,  in  the  prodi 
gious  development  of  the  port  of  New  York,  as  it  reduced 
the  journey  between  the  Atlantic  and  Buffalo  from  six  weeks 
to  ten  days  and  the  cost  of  freight  from  100  to  12  dollars 
a  ton  (Pierre  Bastian).  Cleveland  owes  its  existence 
to  the  Ohio  Canal,  which  was  finished  in  1836.  Phila 
delphia  was  connected  with  New  York;  Baltimore  and 
Washington  undertook  to  cross  the  Allegheny  chain  and 
reach  the  Mississippi  valley;  and  I  have  seen  Penn 
sylvania's  great  and  capricious  rivers  escorted  by  rail 
ways,  carrying  a  great  deal  of  traffic,  on  both  banks, 
and  paralleled  by  canals,  most  of  which  were  disused. 


430  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

All  this  great  effort  of  genius  corresponded  to  the  resources 
and  future  of  the  United  States.  Though  the  canals  were 
an  established  fact  before  the  railroad  came  in,  they  were 
in  territory  which  was  then  of  very  little  value  and  were 
built  very  cheaply,  comparatively  speaking,  in  spite  of  the 
scarcity  of  labor.  Public  opinion  called  for  great  public 
works.  A  long  period  of  warfare  had  just  closed  in  1815, 
and  the  time  had  come  to  make  up  for  the  losses  of  the 
past  by  peaceful  enterprises.  Fulton's  experiments  on 
the  Hudson  and  the  possibilities  of  the  steamboat  did  not 
justify  any  expectation  that  upstream  navigation  could  be 
regularly  carried  on,  but  the  canals  seemed  to  meet  all 
requirements.  They  nevertheless  ended  in  failures  and 
financial  crises  strongly  resembling  modern  slumps.  In 
reality  they  succumbed  under  the  burden  of  early  disap 
pointments  and  to  unexpected  and  formidable  competition. 
The  problem  of  steam  traction  on  rails  was  solved  by 
George  Stephenson  in  1829;  and  in  1830,  when  canal 
building  was  in  its  early  days,  the  Americans  already  had 
23  miles  of  railroad.  In  1850,  they  had  10,000  miles; 
in  1870,  53,000;  in  1890,  105,000;  and  so  on.  How  could 
a  canal,  which  costs  a  great  deal  to  build  and  is  a  slow  means 
of  transport,  compete  with  such  a  simple  and  expeditious 
contrivance  as  a  railroad?  Rivalry  would  be  even  more 
out  of  the  question  for  river  traffic,  with  all  its  irregularity 
and  uncertainty.  The  railways,  of  course,  took  advantage 
of  the  failure  of  the  canals  and  bought  up,  at  absurdly  low 
prices,  certain  sections  of  canal,  which  they  either  aban 
doned  or  filled  up  to  make  roadbeds  for  their  own  lines. 
They  systematically  boycotted  the  canals  and  waged  a 
war  of  extermination  against  them.  The  result  is  that  it 
is  now  almost  impossible  to  create  a  general  system  of 
canals,  though  it  could  have  been  easily  created  at  the 
beginning.  This  is  yet  another  instance  of  the  manner  in 
which  Americans  have  gone  from  one  extreme  to  another 


COMPETITION  431 

in  neglecting  their  waterways  and  even  their  oversea  com 
munications.  For  many  years,  maritime  transport  was 
in  the  hands  of  England,  followed  by  France  and  Germany, 
before  a  single  American  company  appeared  on  the  scene.1 
The  worst  of  it  now  is  that  the  American  government  has 
begun  by  another  opposite  extreme.  Instead  of  being 
fostered  and  developed  by  the  construction  of  steamers, 
American's  international  trade  is  being  stifled  at  its  very 
birth  by  the  outlay  on  dreadnoughts. 

To  confine  ourselves  to  inland  navigation,  an  attempt  at 
a  revival  was  made  after  the  war  of  secession,  during  the 
great  outburst  of  enterprise  which  occurred  at  that  time. 
It  began  with  the  Chicago  Canal,  which  connects  the  Great 
Lakes  with  the  Mississippi  watershed.  The  belief  that 
railroads  and  canals  must  necessarily  be  hostile  has  been 
disproved  by  experience.  It  has  been  found  that  the 
number  of  travelers  increases  in  proportion  with  the  means 
of  transport  available.  It  is  the  same  with  freight.  Inter 
nal  navigation  comes  to  the  assistance  of  the  railways,  takes 
the  goods  they  do  not  care  to  handle  and  leaves  the  light 
and  perishable  articles  to  them.  This  is  another  instance 
of  order  and  understanding  produced  by  division  of  labor. 

Nowhere  is  this  more  clearly  shown  than  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  Niagara,  where  electricity  is  distributed  over 
a  very  wide  area  and  adds  to  the  intense  activity  of  pro 
duction  and  circulation.  Buffalo  is  a  terminal  station  for 
the  lake,  canal,  railway  and  electric  car  traffic,  and  since 
I  first  visited  it  in  1902,  has  become  a  transport  capital. 
It  is  the  starting  point  of  the  Erie  Canal.  The  Buffalo 
people,  far  from  neglecting  this  canal,  do  it  full  justice. 
They  also  regard  it  as  a  necessary  regulator  for  the  tariffs 
of  the  New  York  Central  and  all  the  other  companies  and 

1  It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  this  has  not  always  been  the  case.  Before 
the  present  navigation  laws,  there  was  a  large  mercantile  marine ;  Ameri 
can  "  Clipper"  ships  were  numerous  and  celebrated  for  speed. 


432  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

systems  which  are  accused  of  favoring  Pittsburgh  to  the 
detriment  of  Buffalo.  In  conjunction  with  the  chambers  of 
commerce  throughout  the  state  of  New  York,  they  are  pro 
viding  all  the  funds  needed  for  the  upkeep  and  development 
of  the  canal.  One  hundred  and  one  million  dollars  has  been 
voted  for  modernizing  it,  making  it  available  for  thousand- 
ton  barges,  and  widening  it  throughout  its  course,  which  has 
been  changed  in  various  places,  from  the  Great  Lakes  as  far 
as  the  Hudson  and  New  York  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the 
other,  as  far  as  Lake  Champlain,  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the 
ocean,  so  that  it  is  now  known  as  the  "  Thousand-ton  Barge 
Canal." 

The  work  was  begun  in  1905  and  is  making  very  good 
progress.  Throughout  the  states  there  is  a  general  ten 
dency  to  concerted  action  with  a  view  to  "  saving  the  forests 
and  storing  up  the  floods."  This  is  a  national  movement 
undertaken,  greatly  to  his  credit,  at  the  instigation  of 
ex-President  Roosevelt,  so  as  to  discipline  the  magnificent 
resources  of  his  country  and  utilize  them  for  navigation, 
power  production,  irrigation,  etc.,  and  we  have  seen  that 
this  plan  meets  with  general  approval.  We  must  hope 
that  it  will  be  carried  out  without  delay,  so  as  to  add  to  the 
national  wealth  and  ward  off  terrible  scourges.  It  will 
be  the  American  equivalent  of  what  is  known  in  France 
as  the  Freycinet  plan. 

Duluth 

Internal  navigation,  however,  is  not  confined  to  rivers 
and  canals.  It  expands  considerably  on  the  lakes  during 
the  summer.  Buffalo  is  a  long  way  from  Duluth,  and  navi 
gation  is  stopped  during  the  winter.  It  is  retarded  by 
having  to  go  through  two  long  straits,  and  the  journey  takes 
four  days  in  summer,  but  nevertheless  the  saving,  as  com 
pared  with  the  railroad,  is  enormous,  and  works  out  at  a 
dollar  a  ton  of  pig-iron  in  favor  of  Buffalo.  This  has  led 


COMPETITION  433 

to  new  competition  with  Pittsburgh  in  the  form  of  ironworks 
that  are  fed  directly  from  the  quays ;  and  Buffalo  itself  has 
numerous  competitors,  such  as  Cleveland,  Toledo  on  Lake 
Erie,  etc.  Duluth  is  also  entering  the  field,  as  was  only 
to  be  expected,  and  is  no  longer  content  merely  to  extract 
and  export  its  ores.  "In  conformity  with  the  new  prin 
ciple  of  bringing  the  coal  to  the  ore  and  not  the  ore  to  the 
coal,  the  Union  Steel  Corporation  has  put  up  very  large 
steel  works  at  Duluth,  on  the  bank  of  the  St.  Louis  River, 
and  is  making,  principally,  rails  for  sale  in  the  West  to  the 
numerous  young  communities  growing  up  in  that  vaguely 
defined  empire,  over  which  Duluth  hopes  to  exercise 
economic  sway."  1 

We  have  thus  lakes,  railways,  tramways  —  and  rivers 
and  canals  will  soon  be  added  to  the  list  —  competing  with 
one  another  to  serve  the  cities,  ports  and  centers  of  pro 
duction  and  export.  For  the  sake  of  clearness,  I  have  dealt 
only  with  steel  and  coal,  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
all  this  part  of  the  north  of  the  United  States,  which  was 
known  only  for  its  timber  fifty  years  ago,  is  now  also 
producing  what  are  perhaps  still  larger  quantities  of  grain, 
cattle,  meat  and  manufactured  articles.  What  a  wonder 
ful  machine  is  man,  who  decides  and  regulates  all  this 
competition  and  frantic  activity,  and  what  a  number  of 
machines  and  contrivances  this  competition  has  called  into 
being  to  add  to  his  productive  power !  How  many  im 
provements  upon  improvements  in  the  postal,  telegraphic 
and  automatic  telephone  services  are  at  his  disposal,  pend 
ing  the  practical  application  of  wireless  telegraphy !  The 
Buffalo  business  man  is  something  like  the  water  power 
of  Niagara  condensed  into  a  wire.  All  you  have  to  do  is 
to  put  the  wire  into  contact  with  the  object  in  view,  and 
you  obtain  all  you  need  in  light,  heat,  motion,  power,  speech 
and  every  kind  of  facility  for  management. 

1  A.   Demangeon,  in  the  "  Annales  de  Geographic,"  March  15,  1913. 
2  F 


434  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

Roads 

Not  only  canals  but  roads,  which  were  still  more  neg 
lected,  are  in  process  of  revival.  A  great  deal  of  money  is 
being  set  aside  for  them  by  the  state  of  New  York  and  the 
Federal  government  itself.  Both  on  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  coasts  I  have  seen  the  beginning  of  a  great  system 
of  national  highroads.  Between  the  great  lines  of  water 
and  steel,  roads  are  being  spread  out  like  the  meshes  of  a 
net  or  the  meshes  of  a  spider's  web  whose  main  ribs  are 
already  fixed.  These  road  systems  are  still  in  embryo, 
but  they  are  none  the  less  available,  not  merely  for  bicy 
cles  but  for  motor  cars,  which  will  complete  the  work  of 
organization,  competition  and  speed.  An  order  can  now 
be  given  in  an  hour  at  all  four  extremities  of  the  country. 
It  is  impossible  to  think,  without  a  feeling  akin  to  awe, 
of  what  the  world  will  eventually  become.  How  childish 
to  try  to  go  on  governing  it  in  accordance  with  the  tra 
ditions  of  by-gone  times,  and  what  a  rude  awakening  is 
in  store  for  the  countries  that  cannot  manage  to  adapt 
themselves  to  these  changes ! 

La  Salle  Creek 

I  took  advantage  of  the  numerous  improvements  effected 
in  travel  arrangements,  and  also  of  the  kindness  lavished 
upon  me  by  my  Buffalo  friends,  to  accompany  them  on  a 
pilgrimage  into  the  past,  to  a  place  a  little  way  above 
Niagara  Falls.  We  went  to  La  Salle  Creek,  the  tiny  little 
port  whither  La  Salle's  men  carried  all  the  materials  for 
building  his  first  ship,  the  first  vessel  that  ever  sailed 
the  waters  of  the  Great  Lakes,  the  unlucky  Griffon,  a 
masterpiece  of  perseverance  and  tenacity,  sunk  either  by 
storms  or  treachery  —  no  one  knows  which.  In  1902  the 
Americans  caused  the  following  inscription  to  be  let  into 


COMPETITION  435 

the  face  of  the  rock :  "  Hereabouts,  in  May  1679,  Robert 
Cavelier  de  la  Salle  built  the  Griffon,  of  sixty  tons  burthen, 
the  first  vessel  to  sail  the  upper  lakes."  Their  object  was 
to  mark  the  spot  where  our  heroic  countryman  and  his 
companions  themselves  built,  rigged  and  launched  the  vessel 
which  ought  to  have  been  so  useful  to  them,  but  would  have 
been  recorded  as  merely  another  heartbreaking  disappoint 
ment  in  a  life  of  conflict  had  it  not  enjoyed  the  glory  of 
being  the  forerunner  of  modern  navigation  on  the  Great 
Lakes.  Another  monument  has  been  erected,  not  far  away, 
to^the  memory  of  Father  Hennepin,  and  there  is  a  third,  at 
St.  Ignatius  Point,  on  Lake  Michigan,  to  Father  Marquette. 
I  took  off  my  hat  to  these  souvenirs,  or  humble  seeds, 
and  surveyed  the  immense  harvest  they  have  produced. 
What  would  these  poor  pioneers  think  of  the  continent 
they  were  so  proud  to  explore  on  foot  or  in  canoes,  at  the 
rate  of  a  few  miles  a  day  or  a  week,  at  the  cost  of  incal 
culable  exertions  and  risks,  with  no  reward  but  ingrati 
tude  and  death,  if  they  could  pay  a  visit  to  a  business 
man  in  the  country  once  inhabited  by  the  long-departed 
buffalo,  and  note  how,  from  one  end  of  it  to  another,  he 
can  make  his  voice  heard  and  his  wishes  felt  in  a  few  min 
utes  and  set  many  other  wants  in  motion  ?  It  seems  impos 
sible  that  such  a  conflict  of  independent  personalities,  all 
working  toward  their  own  ends,  can  produce  anything  but 
chaos  in  the  country  our  pioneers  longed  to  civilize;  but, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  coordination  exists,  public  spirit  pre 
dominates  over  individual  energy,  and  out  of  intense 
American  competition  comes  American  prosperity,  which  is 
becoming  more  and  more  assured  every  day. 

Disciplining  Niagara 

Order  born  of  disciplined  forces  makes  itself  evident  on 
all  sides.     It  impressed  me  more  at  Buffalo  than  anywhere 


AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

else,  because  here  the  power  has  a  special  and  symbolical 
meaning;  it  is  Niagara.  The  disciplining  of  Niagara  is 
the  climax  of  a  long  series  of  disinterested  efforts  that 
eventually  overcame  all  obstacles.  It  is  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  our  pioneers  and  also  of  the  snow,  which,  like 
themselves,  was  not  understood,  and  now,  again,  like  them 
is  estimated  at  its  true  worth  —  snow  converted  into 
heat,  the  snow  that  was  their  example  and  sets  an  example 
like  theirs  by  penetrating  in  all  directions  and  melting 
away,  only  to  return  in  the  form  of  unlimited  advantages. 
It  is  a  fact  that  only  one  of  the  innumerable  resources 
afforded  by  the  Great  Lakes  is  utilized  for  navigation, 
which  simply  touches  their  fringe  and  leaves  them  intact. 
Millions  of  little  springs  hurry  from  mountain  and  plain 
to  offer  their  services  and  combine  to  form  inland  seas. 
They  do  not  confine  themselves  to  carrying  vessels,  but 
help  in  all  sorts  of  ways,  and  this  is  where  the  snows  of 
Canada  come  in.  Those  splendid  sheets  of  water  known 
as  Lakes  Superior,  Michigan,  Huron  and  Erie  are  quiet 
enough  in  ordinary  weather,  but  nevertheless  follow  an 
invisible  current,  apparently  purposeless,  until  their  waters 
reach  the  point  at  which  they  flow  in  a  narrower  channel 
and  dash  down  the  falls  of  Niagara.  Although  they  are 
a  concrete  example  of  untamable  strength,  these  falls  have 
let  themselves  be  tamed,  or  harnessed  as  the  Americans 
express  it.  They  push  and  haul  at  man's  command,  in 
stead  of  destroying.  They  separate  themselves  into  as 
many  thousands  of  horses  and  arms  as  they  were  origi 
nally  springs,  and  bring  their  assistance,  in  the  form  of 
light  and  power,  to  every  inhabitant's  house.  Man  has 
learned  to  understand  them  and  to  enlist  them  on  his  side 
by  calling  upon  them  to  cooperate  in  his  labors.  They  are  an 
association  of  willing  helpers  taken  into  partnership  by  man. 
My  companions,  out  of  regard  for  the  feelings  aroused 
in  my  mind,  returned  to  Buffalo  without  me,  and  I  went 


COMPETITION  437 

alone  to  spend  the  night  at  the  hotel  overlooking  the  falls. 
It  was  quite  at  the  beginning  of  the  season.  The  hotel 
was  almost  empty,  and  the  night  was  cold  and  clear  —  one 
of  those  nights  that  bring  out  our  consciences  as  well  as 
the  stars.  I  sat  for  hours  at  my  open  window,  gazing  at 
Niagara  the  harmless.  "  What,"  I  said  to  myself,  "  cannot 
man,  who  has  disciplined  this  outburst  of  violence,  dis 
cipline  himself?  Is  he  who  has  mastered  Nature's  forces, 
and  turned  them  to  good  account,  to  be  the  principal 
agent  of  destruction  in  the  world?  Did  he  combine  all 
these  forces  merely  to  annihilate  his  own  masterpieces, 
blight  his  own  future  and  cause  rivers  of  blood  and  tears 
to  flow?  "  No ;  such  an  outcome  of  civilization  would  be 
not  only  monstrous  but  paradoxical.  The  civilizing  of 
every  nation  on  earth  is  unlikely  to  be  accomplished  during 
the  next  generation,  but  the  most  civilized  will  no  longer 
want  war  and  will  fight  it  as  they  have  fought  all  the 
plagues  of  humanity  one  after  another. 


Education  by  Gentleness 

What  so  many  travelers  admire  at  Niagara  is  not  very 
different,  except  as  regards  size,  from  what  can  be  seen  in 
the  Alps,  Scandinavia,  Africa  and  elsewhere,  but  its  pro 
portions  are  impressive  and  enable  a  better  estimate  of 
human  progress  to  be  made.  I  have  seen  plenty  of  these 
American  power  stations,  wherein  good  order,  silence  and 
solitude  prevail,  but  one  that  produces  150,000  horse  power 
and  can  go  up  to  200,000  if  necessary,  such  as  can  be 
seen  at  Niagara,  and  is  run,  or  rather  superintended,  by 
one  man,  with  an  assistant  to  take  his  place  in  case  of 
accident,  is  nevertheless  something  calculated  to  make 
one  think.  What  a  lesson  for  a  whole  people  lies  in  the 
regiments  of  machines  that  stand  in  long  lines  in  the  fac 
tories  and  houses  and  along  the  quays  and  are  driven  by 


438  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

the  silent  turbine  —  an  army  of  unfailing  forces  posted 
everywhere  and  led  by  staffs  of  workmen !  Yes,  this  is 
education  in  gentleness  and  reason  itself !  A  non-commis 
sioned  officer  at  drill,  a  man  who  commands  other  men  or 
is  merely  riding  a  horse,  is  more  or  less  prone  to  anger. 
The  best  of  our  young  men  are  only  too  much  inclined, 
when  they  are  going  through  the  military  riding  school, 
or  are  at  the  maneuvers,  to  use  whip  and  spur  and  oaths. 
How  often  do  we  hear  the  word  of  command  to  "let  him 
have  it"  that  drives  the  rider's  heel  into  his  horse's  side! 
And  then  we  have  the  carter,  who  is  often  compelled  to 
exact  too  much  from  his  horse,  toiling  uphill  with  too  heavy 
a  load,  and  there  is  also  the  cabman ! 

Collective  Labor 

With  the  machine  tool  and  the  automobile,  all  this  angry 
feeling  vanishes.  A  mere  gesture,  a  sign,  a  sharp  move 
ment  or  even  a  look  acts  on  the  machine.  When  we  can 
cause  a  catastrophe  merely  by  turning  a  handle,  we  get 
out  of  the  way  of  losing  our  self-control.  What  is  the  use 
of  being  angry  with  a  machine  that  merely  obeys  you? 
It  is  different,  of  course,  with  a  horse  or  a  child  or  a  woman ; 
it  is  always  his  or  her  fault !  But,  with  a  machine,  gentle 
ness  becomes  a  power  —  the  greatest  power,  in  fact.  In 
this  sense,  the  machine  really  trains  the  man.  All  the 
time  and  energy  he  used  to  waste  on  fruitless  struggles  he 
now  utilizes  for  self-control.  He  is  learning  to  despise 
futile  fury.  A  new  harmony  regulates  the  sway  of  man 
over  his  will  and,  consequently,  the  relations  between  men 
themselves.  Discipline  has  come  down  from  the  heights 
of  science  into  the  workshop  and,  with  the  help  of  a  hand 
ful  of  willing  workers,  is  achieving  miracles  of  collective 
effort  that  were  accomplished  in  olden  times  only  by 
slavery.  In  sports  just  as  much  as  in  work  and,  if  need  be, 


COMPETITION  439 

in  national  defense,  American  action  is  voluntary  and 
combined.  It  is  a  rhythmical  movement  that  may  be  lik 
ened  to  the  respiration  of  a  nation. 

This  is  an  incalculably  important  piece  of  progress. 
When  I  returned  to  Buffalo,  I  found  confirmation  of  it 
in  what  might  be  described,  in  this  chapter  on  transporta 
tion  facilities,  as  a  slow  race. 

Another  Moving  House 

My  readers  will  remember  how  surprised  I  was  when  I 
saw  houses  moved  at  Seattle.  I  was  driving  in  an  auto 
mobile  on  one  of  the  broad  boulevards  at  Buffalo  when 
one  of  my  cicerones  pointed  out  the  bishop's  house  to  me. 
I  immediately  asked  to  have  the  automobile  stopped.  The 
house  was  being  moved,  and  what  a  house  it  was !  Those 
at  Seattle  were  merely  frame  buildings,  but  this  was  one 
of  the  handsome  villas  that  American  architects  are  now 
building  for  their  wealthiest  clients.  I  can  still  see  it.  A 
photograph  of  the  house  lies  before  me,  with  that  of  Mr. 
Gustave  T.  Britt,  the  contractor  who  carried  out  these 
extraordinary  operations  and  whom  I  called  the  Napoleon  of 
transportation  !  The  house  occupied  by  the  Catholic  bishop 
of  Buffalo  is  a  large  and  handsome  three-story  brick  and 
granite  building.  The  ground  floor,  under  which  is  a  high 
basement,  is  built  of  granite  and  has  very  large  windows. 
There  is  a  portico,  with  marble  columns,  and  a  terrace  on 
top,  over  the  front  steps.  A  wing  projects  on  one  side, 
and,  on  the  other,  there  is  a  gable.  There  is  also  an  out 
side  veranda  with  an  open  balustrade  and  six  small 
columns  supporting  another  terrace.  The  roof  is  high- 
pitched  and  has  pointed  turrets  of  the  pepper-box  shape, 
above  which  rises  a  large  and  handsome  brick  chimney 
stack.  The  house  does  not  look  as  if  it  had  much  stability, 
in  spite  of  its  size. 


440  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Nothing  inside  the  building  was  removed.  The  gas 
and  water  mains  were  simply  cut.  Not  a  single  piece  of 
furniture,  picture,  statue  or  vase  was  taken  away  for 
safety,  and  for  obvious  reasons ;  for,  if  the  balance  had 
been  disturbed  by  ever  so  little,  the  chimney  stack,  and  not 
the  clock,  would  have  been  the  first  to  fall ;  but  the  whole 
process  was  so  well  combined,  and  the  army  of  volunteer 
workers  showed  such  intelligence  and  discipline  that  it 
was  possible  to  move  the  whole  house.  This  is  how  it  was 
done,  so  far  as  I  can  convey  the  information  kindly  given 
me  by  Mr.  Gustave  T.  Britt. 

You  put  temporary  foundations,  consisting  of  long 
horizontal  beams,  in  the  place  of  the  permanent  brick  and 
granite  foundations.  You  prepare  a  perfectly  flat  bed, 
and  you  insert  transverse  wooden  rollers  between  the  bed 
and  the  temporary  foundations.  All  you  have  to  do  after 
this  is  to  apply  pressure  to  the  end  of  the  temporary  foun 
dations,  which  start  off,  with  the  house  on  top  of  them,  and 
make  their  way,  over  the  bed  prepared  for  them,  to  the 
selected  site. 

The  pressure,  as  I  will  proceed  to  explain,  is  applied  by 
means  of  screws,  and  here  we  have  an  illustration  of  the 
rhythm  of  concerted  action  which  the  slightest  disorder  or 
lack  of  attention  would  suffice  to  upset.  All  the  screws  are 
turned  in  unison  by  gangs  of  workmen,  who  are  responsible 
for  them,  under  the  direction  of  a  signaler.  A  whistle, 
blown  once  or  several  times,  usually  gives  the  signal. 
Each  turn  of  the  screws  moves  the  house  one  eighth  of  an 
inch.  When  the  building  has  reached  its  new  site,  the  tem 
porary  foundations  are  removed  in  sections  and  permanent 
substructures  are  put  in  their  place.  Everything  inside 
remains  in  its  usual  position,  and  the  occupants  might  have 
stayed  there  too. 

Why  was  the  house  moved?  Simply  because  it  was  too 
near  the  church,  which  was  too  far  to  one  side,  and  it  was 


COMPETITION  441 

decided  that,  when  the  house  was  out  of  the  way,  the 
church  should  be  moved  too.  By  this  time  the  work  has 
probably  been  done  and  forgotten. 

We  cannot  look  within  ourselves,  and  only  a  foreigner, 
like  myself,  stops  to  notice  these  things  and  learn  from 
them.  The  bishop's  house,  moving  in  obedience  to  the 
workmen,  who  are  themselves  directed  by  signals  but  none 
the  less  understand  their  work  and  do  it  without  a  word,  is 
symbolical  of  a  whole  country,  including  the  working  class, 
in  process  of  organization. 

The  Americans  do  not  know  it,  but,  without  being 
militarized,  they  are  drilled  and  a  hundred  times  readier 
than  they  were  a  hundred  years  ago  to  take  up  arms  and 
conquer  if  attacked.  They  have  been  so  well  educated  by 
discipline,  sobriety  and  muscular  development  that  they 
are  superior  to  any  armies  they  might  try  to  form  on  the 
spur  of  the  moment.  Those  who  advise  them  to  give  up 
the  advantage  of  this  exceptional  education  and  become 
contaminated  by  the  example  of  our  European  armies  have 
failed  to  realize  the  real  strength  of  the  United  States  — 
the  education  of  liberty. 

The  system  of  acting  on  the  masses  by  method  and  good 
organization  has  become  so  general  that  I  have  found  it 
in  operation  more  or  less  all  over  the  United  States.  An 
other  remarkable  feat  was  accomplished  at  Syracuse. 
An  extra  story  had  to  be  put  on  to  a  house,  but,  instead 
of  taking  off  the  roof,  it  was  found  simpler  to  raise  it  to 
the  required  height  and  to  insert  the  new  story  into  the 
space  thus  obtained.  The  screw  pressure  was  exerted 
upward  instead  of  horizontally,  and,  as  the  roof  rose,  the 
intervening  wall  space  was  simply  filled  in  with  wooden 
blocks,  which  were  afterwards  replaced  by  the  required 
materials.  Archimedes  is  evidently  more  appreciated  in 
the  New  World  than  in  the  old. 

I  cannot  adequately  express  my  gratitude  to  the  Ameri- 


442  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

cans  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  these  observations :  to 
Mr.  Francis  Almy  and  especially  to  Mr.  John  G.  Eppendorff 
as  regards  Buffalo.  They  were  kind  enough  to  be  present 
with  me,  in  spite  of  the  broiling  sunshine,  at  one  more 
process  that  I  wanted  to  see  with  my  own  eyes  —  the  auto 
matic  unloading  of  the  Duluth  ore  boats  on  reaching  their 
destination.  This  is  the  final  link  in  the  chain  of  compe 
tition,  forged  by  the  new  steel  manufacturing  centers,  with 
Pittsburgh,  and  this  is  where  I  finally  realized  how  freight 
charges  can  be  cut  down  and  how  one  competitor  can  re 
duce  his  expenses  in  comparison  with  the  others.  It  is 
like  a  race  for  a  prize  which  will  go  to  whomever  can  carry 
the  greatest  weight  with  the  least  expenditure  of  effort. 

Unloading  Ore  automatically  at  Buffalo 

While  the  ore  from  Duluth  for  the  Pittsburgh  steel  works 
has  to  be  unloaded  into  railroad  cars  at  Cleveland,  the 
Buffalo  works,  as  I  have  said,  are  on  the  wharves  alongside 
which  the  same  boats  are  moored.  A  single  one  of  these 
magnificent  boats,  600  feet  long,  can  contain  12,000  tons  of 
ore,  poured  into  it  as  I  have  described.  Four  immense 
bridges,  shaped  like  viaducts,  travel  on  a  rail  track  laid 
parallel  to  the  quays.  Each  of  these  bridges  forms  a  con 
nection  between  the  boat  and  the  top  of  the  blast  furnace. 
Under  the  flooring  of  the  bridge,  a  steel  hand,  —  not  an  arm 
this  tune,  —  suspended  by  wires,  moves  backwards  and 
forwards.  When  this  hand,  or  "  clam  "  comes  over  the  boat, 
it  goes  down,  plunges  into  the  heap  of  ore,  seizes  as  much 
as  it  can  hold,  picks  it  up  and  deposits  it  either  in  great 
heaps  or  mountains  on  the  other  side  of  the  quay  or  in  com 
partments,  with  movable  bottoms,  which  empty  them 
selves  in  turn,  by  means  of  a  chain  of  small  cars  and  a  sys 
tem  of  very  simple  elevators,  into  the  blast  furnaces,  the 
latter  having  been  previously  supplied  with  layers  of  coke 


COMPETITION  443 

and  lime.  The  stock  of  ore  is  always  considerably  in  excess 
of  current  requirements,  so  as  to  have  enough  to  keep  the 
furnaces  going  in  winter,  when  boat  traffic  is  stopped.  The 
bridge  and  the  hand  are  worked  by  one  man,  and  there  is 
no  one  else  to  be  seen  on  the  quay  or  in  the  boat.  The 
place  looks  deserted  and  dead ;  in  reality,  it  is  full  of  the 
concentrated  life  of  a  crowd  of  workmen.  The  saving  in 
labor,  shovels,  pickaxes,  wheelbarrows,  time  and  money 
has  been  figured  out,  and  it  is  found  that  the  cost  of  un 
loading  a  ton  is  reduced  from  5  cents  to  less  than  half  a 
cent.  We  must  not  forget  that  Buffalo  is  not  the  only 
port  in  the  United  States  to  compete  with  Pittsburgh,  and 
that,  as  far  away  as  Seattle,  we  have  seen  how  manufac 
turers  are  organizing  the  output  and  transport  of  steel  and 
iron,  to  say  nothing  of  other  commodities.  I  might  bestow 
equal  praise,  if  not  more,  on  Toledo,  Detroit  and  especially 
Cleveland,  which  city  by  no  means  confines  itself  to  trans 
shipping  ore  but  has  ten  blast  furnaces  of  its  own  —  some 
at  Cleveland  itself,  on  the  Cuyahoga  River,  and  others  at 
Youngstown.  They  are  all  of  the  very  best  kind,  espe 
cially  the  one  at  the  port  of  Lorraine,  and  are  mostly  in  the 
hands  of  competing  owners.  We  must  also  remember  that 
a  city  like  Cleveland  has  three  thousand  factories,  including 
very  large  petroleum  refineries,  and  the  works  that  supply 
other  ports,  such  as  Buffalo,  Cleveland  and  Duluth,  with 
their  gigantic  traveling  bridges  for  unloading  ore.  Land 
has  appreciated  so  much  in  these  places  that  a  friend  of 
mine,  who  had  bought  an  iSy-acre  lot  for  a  mere  song,  has 
just  sold  it  for  nine  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  a  blast 
furnace  company,  which  paid  this  price  for  it  because  it 
had  a  water  frontage.  Another  factor  in  the  situation  is 
that  there  are  plenty  of  banks  ready  to  advance  money  to 
manufacturers,  that  a  Land  Bank  is  in  process  of  formation 
to  encourage  business  enterprises,  and  that  these  enterprises 
are  being  carried  out  in  every  direction,  in  Texas  and 


444  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

Colorado  just  as  freely  as  in  New  England.  In  view  of 
all  these  facts,  one  is  tempted  to  say  that  the  Americans, 
in  virtue  of  the  magnificent  resources  of  their  soil,  of  their 
great  industriousness  and  particularly  their  methodical 
habits,  of  their  modern  and  perfected  appliances,  and  of 
the  merciless  competition  among  their  numerous  produc 
ing  centers  —  among  different  factories  in  the  same  city, 
among  the  cities  themselves  and  the  states  of  the  Union 

—  have  attained  the  maximum  of  human  effort  and  can 
defy  all  human  competition.  It  seems  as  if  they  have  placed 
themselves  in  the  forefront  of  the  race  for  development 
of  transportation  which  is  inseparable  from  the  other  race 

-  output ;  it  seems  as  if  their  victory  must  be  as  certain 
as  it  is  well  deserved.  It  seems  .  ,  ? 


3.   Canadian  Competition 

The  victory  seems  certain,  but  the  transport  race  is  not 
merely  a  national  one.  It  is  stimulated  in  the  United 
States,  as  well  as  elsewhere,  by  foreign  competition.  I 
was  able  to  see  this  distinctly  at  Buffalo,  which  is  a  frontier 
city.  All  I  had  to  do  was  to  leave  United  States  territory 
and  go  over  to  the  left,  or  Canadian,  bank  of  the  Niagara. 
What  remains  for  the  United  States  to  do,  if  they  are  to 
keep  ahead,  is  at  once  evident  here.  All  the  rival  enter 
prises  we  have  admired  are  confronted  by  another  rival ; 
and  the  eternal  principle  that  one  form  of  progress  shall 
be  outstripped  by  another  is  exemplified.  The  Americans 
are  our  masters  in  business  activity,  but  there  is  no  proof 
that  their  pupils,  who  are  adopting  their  methods  in  the 
hope  of  doing  still  better,  and  are  profiting  by  their  experi 
ence,  will  not  take  part  in  the  race  with  a  still  more  juvenile 
self-confidence,  with  constantly  improved  mechanical  ap 
pliances  of  every  kind,  and  with  new  men,  new  resources 
and  new  chances. 


COMPETITION  445 

The  Two  Banks  of  the  Niagara 

A  comparison  between  the  two  sides  of  the  Niagara 
suggests  that  there  is  already  cause  for  uneasiness,  from  the 
Americans'  point  of  view.  On  their  side  —  which,  to  be 
just,  is  less  favored  by  Nature  than  the  other,  the  largest 
waterfall  being  on  the  Canadian  bank  —  there  are  traces 
of  the  disorder  caused  by  a  determination  to  work  every 
thing  out  to  the  fullest  extent.  There  is  a  simply  barbar 
ous  collection  of  factories  and  rough,  temporary  structures 
for  utilizing  various  forms  of  power.  It  looks  like  an 
enlarged  reproduction  of  one  of  those  parasitic  Turkish 
towns  that  profane  the  majesty  of  the  holy  places.  Around 
the  wonderful  curve  of  blue  waters  falling  headlong  into 
whirlpools  and  mist,  there  was  once  a  belt  of  vegetation, 
rocks,  cascades  and  clear  waters,  but  it  has  been  ravaged 
and  polluted.  Public-spirited  men,  such  as  those  who 
accompanied  me,  are  now  trying  to  atone  for  the  mischief 
and  to  plead  the  cause  of  art,  of  Nature,  and  a  better  con 
ception  of  what  befits  the  interest  and  the  honor  of  their 
country.  Vegetation's  right  to  existence  has  been  revived 
in  favor  of  a  park  on  the  American  side,  above  the  falls, 
and  a  very  intelligent  curator,  who  learned  something  from 
our  horticulturists  at  Orleans  and  Angers,  is  doing  his 
best  to  make  good  the  damage.  This  is  a  sign  of  progress 
which  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  public  spirit ;  but,  below 
the  falls,  the  barbarians  triumph  with  impunity.  They 
have  managed  to  ruin  the  shore,  and  even  the  reputation 
of  the  Niagara  River. 

Everything  on  the  Canadian  side  is  not  perfect.  The 
authorities  were  ill-advised  when  they  permitted  the  con 
struction  of  some  Tyrolean  pavilions,  and  posts  with  wires 
which  are  certainly  out  of  place  here,  right  in  line  with  the 
view  of  the  falls ;  but  we  must  not  expect  too  much  (Paris 
is  guilty  of  spoiling  the  sunset  with  that  wretched  building, 


446  AMERICA  AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

the  Trocadero,  which  is  worthy  of  what  it  was  intended  to 
commemorate),  and  let  us  admit  that  the  Canadians  have 
treated  Niagara  with  comparative  respect.  They  have  a 
fine  park,  and  their  electric  stations  are  not  only  the  most 
powerful  but  the  least  aggressive.  They  represent  real 
strength  —  the  kind  that  passes  unnoticed.  In  this  they 
are  manifestly  superior.  When  the  Americans  profaned 
their  side  of  Niagara,  they  made  a  mistake  that  belongs  to 
the  history  of  the  United  States  and  was  an  unconscious 
challenge  to  true  civilization. 

Niagara,  however,  is  only  one  of  the  points  at  which 
Canadian  activity  shows  itself.  Let  us  proceed  further, 
in  our  study  of  the  progress  of  the  young  Dominion,  with 
our  eyes  and  ears  open. 

Revenge  after  Prolonged  Disdain 

Canada  enjoys  a  singular  privilege :  man  has  neglected 
it.  Both  the  strength  and  weakness  of  the  United  States 
are  due  to  the  fact  that  men,  in  their  haste  to  be  rich, 
turned  their  backs  on  Canada  and  hurried  southward  to 
land  that  was  easier  to  work ;  and  the  United  States  were 
both  enriched  and  bled  to  the  last  drop.  For  more  than 
a  century,  Canada  has  suffered  from  the  discredit  we  cast 
on  it,  both  purposely  and  through  ignorance,  so  as  to  justify 
our  abandonment  of  it.  Voltaire's  description  of  Canada 
as  a  few  square  miles  of  snow  satisfied  us  for  a  great  many 
years.  Even  the  snow  was  not  enough,  and  we  buried 
Canada  under  an  avalanche  of  contempt.  In  this  way 
Canada  was  twice  protected.  It  was  her  salvation,  and 
will  eventually  make  her  fortune.  Thanks  to  this  dis 
grace,  Canada  has  husbanded  the  natural  resources  squan 
dered  by  the  United  States.  She  is  not  called  upon  to  make 
up  for  her  neighbors'  faults,  and,  in  fact,  she  has  profited 
by  their  mistakes. 


COMPETITION  447 

A  Clear  Field 

Canada  has  become  an  immense  reserve  and  a  field 
for  the  most  modern  experiments.  It  is  like  having 
a  free  hand  and  the  advantage  of  seeing  a  previous 
attempt  made  next  door  under  your  own  eyes  and  of  the 
first  lesson  of  the  past  in  a  New  World,  in  addition  to 
having  the  assistance  of  the  latest  scientific  discoveries. 
The  determination  of  the  western  part  of  the  United  States 
to  escape  from  the  domination  of  the  East  shows  itself 
to  an  even  greater  extent  in  the  North  and  throughout 
Canada,  especially  in  the  central  and  western  provinces. 
It  must  not  be  forgotten  in  our  consideration  of  this 
subject,  that  the  total  area  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada 
is  larger  than  that  of  the  United  States  and  comprises  more 
than  half  of  North  America. 

Four  Months  of  Warmth 

I  am  quite  aware  that  the  greater  part  of  Canadian 
territory  is  covered  with  ice  and  snow  during  a  con 
siderable  portion  of  the  year,  and  that  there  are 
such  things  as  very  long  winters  and  early  frosts ;  but 
four  months  of  warmth  and  long  days  are  sufficient 
to  bring  the  crops  to  maturity.  The  rivers  may  be 
frozen  over,  but  their  currents  still  keep  the  dynamos 
going,  and  the  immense  forests  keep  up  their  supply  of 
timber  for  building,  wood  pulp  for  paper  making,  and  furs. 
Moreover,  there  are  few  snowfalls  in  the  North,  and  the 
railways  and  mines  are  not  interfered  with.  The  snow 
helps  to  preserve  all  sorts  of  produce,  especially  the  sup 
plies  of  game  and  fish  for  the  London  market,  and  it  also 
provides  roadways.  Judging  by  what  the  Canadians  say, 
their  snow  must  be  regarded  as  one  of  their  most  valuable 
assets. 


448  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

The  Population 

The  smallness  of  the  population  and  the  consequent  lack 
of  capital  form  the  real  weakness  of  the  country  at  present, 
but  this  is  simply  a  repetition  of  the  history  of  the  United 
States,  and,  in  this  respect  also,  Canada  will  profit  by  her 
neighbor's  experience.  Canada  wants  quality  as  much 
as  quantity  in  her  population.  She  tries  to  choose  her 
immigrants,  like  the  United  States,  and  accepts  only  those 
who  are  physically  and  morally  the  healthiest,  youngest 
and  best  fitted  to  succeed.  She  rigorously  rejects,  as  is  well 
known,  every  one  who  appears  "undesirable."  Her  im 
migration,  like  that  of  the  United  States,  originated  in 
the  most  energetic  class  of  Europeans,  and  they  have 
taken  root.  The  French  pioneers'  blood  was  not  shed 
in  vain.  It  will  stand  comparison  with  the  English  Puri 
tan  blood  combined  with  that  of  the  " cavaliers"  in  the 
south  of  the  United  States.  Such  men  as  Laurier,  Louis 
Jette,  Cartier,  Marchand  and  Gouin  are  in  themselves  a 
source  of  national  wealth.  The  Canadian  population  is 
not  lacking  in  numbers  after  all.  It  looks  very  small  in 
comparison  with  that  of  the  United  States,  but  it  is  increas 
ing  steadily.  The  population  of  the  United  States  will 
soon  attain  one  hundred  millions.  It  has  risen  at  the  rate 
of  more  than  a  million  a  year  since  the  War  of  Secession. 
This  growth  is  especially  pronounced  in  the  direction  of 
the  Pacific.  The  center  of  population  is  moving  steadily 
westward.  While  the  population  in  five  or  six  of  the 
Eastern  states  remains  almost  stationary,  or  has  not  risen 
more  than  20  or  30  per  cent  in  ten  years  (from  1900 
to  1910),  it  has  grown  more  than  50  per  cent  in  all  the 
states  on  the  Pacific  coast  and  on  the  northwest  frontier, 
that  is  to  say,  close  to  Canada,  which  profits  thereby. 
Every  year  the  current  of  immigration  overflows  the  bor 
der,  and  nearly  half  the  agricultural  population  of  the 


COMPETITION  449 

central  Canadian  provinces  is  made  up  of  the  surplus  from 
western  American  farms.  In  the  same  way,  as  we  have 
seen,  a  large  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  of  British  Colum 
bia  come  from  Seattle  and  the  states  of  Washington  and 
Oregon.  One  objection  raised  is  that  these  American 
colonists  will  annex  Canada,  as  those  from  Texas  will 
annex  Mexico.  There  is  no  way  of  annexing  a  world,  and 
the  United  States  will  resist  the  temptation  (which  has 
proved  fatal  to  so  many  empires)  of  experimenting  with 
excessive  expansion  before  they  have  completed  their  own 
growth.  American  colonists  in  Canada  become  Canadians 
because  they  find  themselves  well  off  in  their  new  country. 
They  believe  in  the  saying  "ubi  bene,  ibi  patria"  and  their 
real  roots,  still  quite  young  and  fresh,  are  in  Europe  rather 
than  in  the  United  States. 

In  any  case,  the  population  of  Canada,  from  Halifax 
to  Vancouver  —  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  has 
doubled  in  thirty  years.  In  1911  the  total  stood  at 
7,204,838,  or  about  two  millions  more  than  in  1901  —  four 
times  as  many  people  as  in  Norway,  but  only  a  twelfth  of 
the  number  in  the  United  States.  The  most  important 
point  in  connection  with  the  increase  of  the  population  in 
Canada  is,  not  the  total,  but  the  manner  of  its  distribution 
among  the  provinces.  The  proportion  in  favor  of  the 
Middle  West  and  West  is  even  greater  than  in  the  United 
States.  British  Columbia  has  doubled  its  total,  rising  from 
178,657  in  1901  to  392,480  in  1911.  In  very  much  the 
same  way,  the  number  of  inhabitants  in  Manitoba  has 
advanced  from  255,000  to  455,000.  Saskatchewan  has 
grown  fourfold,  from  91,000  to  492,000,  and  Alberta  five 
fold,  from  73,000  to  374,000.  There  are  declines,  on  the 
other  hand,  in  a  few  provinces,  but  they  are  insignificant. 
The  population  of  Ontario  has  increased  by  several  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants,  from  2,182,000  to  2,573,000,  and  the 
province  of  Quebec  has  also  risen  from  1,648,000  to  2,008,000. 

2G 


450  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Even  if  we  consider  only  the  total  population  of  Canada, 
it  promises  well  if  we  compare  it  with  the  beginnings  of  the 
United  States,  whose  population  increased  to  about  the 
same  extent  during  the  first  thirty  years,  from  1790  to  1820 ; 
that  is  to  say,  about  two  millions  every  ten  years.  We  must 
also  multiply  the  present  number  of  colonists  by  the  very 
great  number  and  power  of  the  machinery  in  use,  and  this 
explains  why  there  was  no  boastfulness  in  what  Sir  Wilfrid 
Laurier  said  after  casting  a  glance  behind  and  another  next 
door:  "The  twentieth  century  will  be  the  Canadian 
century." 

Another  certain  sign  of  general  progress  and  activity  is 
provided  by  the  growth  of  new  cities.  Winnipeg's  popu 
lation  has  risen  from  42,340  in  1901  to  128,157.  Edmon 
ton  had  12,823  inhabitants  in  1901,  and  has  now  nearly 
five  times  this  number,  57,045 ;  and  Saskatoon  has  in 
creased  from  7157  to  51,145.  This  is  a  garden  city  planned 
on  purely  modern  lines.  Comparatively  old  cities  have 
also  prospered  greatly.  Vancouver  has  gained  to  the  extent 
of  100,000  in  less  than  thirty  years,  Toronto  317,538  and 
Montreal  355,480.  These  last  figures  are  instructive.  It 
was,  I  found,  a  city  that  has  been  like  a  vast  building  yard 
for  the  past  ten  years.  It  is  being  remade,  and  is  the  dy 
namometer  of  Canadian  prosperity  and  the  key  to  all  the 
lines  of  communication  between  East  and  West.  It  is  the 
real  capital  of  the  three  eastern  provinces,  with  Toronto, 
Ottawa  and  Quebec,  with  its  magnificent  rivers,  cut  out 
on  a  truly  American  scale,  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  Ottawa  and 
the  innumerable  Hudson  Bay  affluents.  The  country  of 
the  future,  however,  begins  at  Winnipeg,  and,  beyond 
Manitoba,  in  the  two  provinces  of  Saskatchewan  and 
Alberta,  and  also  northward,  150  miles  from  Edmonton, 
where  there  is  good  wheat  land ;  and  then  we  have  that 
magnificent  country,  British  Columbia,  whose  climate  is 
softened  by  the  Pacific  currents. 


COMPETITION  451 

Agriculture 

Among  these  immense  provinces,  several  of  which  are 
as  large  as  France  or  Germany,  we  again  find  emulation 
in  the  output  of  agricultural,  natural  and  manufactured 
produce.  They  have  rivers  and  forests,  the  germ  of  all 
the  rest.  The  forests  are  of  enormous  size,  and  their 
timber,  floated  down  during  about  four  months  of  the 
year,  provides  constant  work  for  the  woodcutter,  who  is  of 
French  stock  and  descended  from  our  bold  French  foresters 
-a  valuable  element  in  Canadian  colonization.  The 
factories  also  keep  going  throughout  the  year,  thanks  to 
another  and  irrepressible  form  of  energy,  water.  The 
fisheries  constitute  an  immense  resource,  ranging  from 
whales  down  to  salmon,  sturgeon  and  trout.  The  value 
of  the  fish  sold  reaches  five  million  dollars  a  year,  but  is 
nevertheless  inferior  to  that  of  the  game  and  far  behind 
that  of  the  furs  and  skins.  Many  sportsmen,  and  also 
colonists,  are  attracted  by  the  good  shooting  obtainable. 
Several  national  parks,  notably  the  one  at  Banff,  have  been 
reserved.  We  are  only  beginning  to  form  some  idea  of 
the  richness  of  the  mineral  deposits,  ranging  from  the  gold 
in  Alaska,  silver,  nickel,  cobalt,  petroleum  and  coal  to  the 
iron  at  Fort  William,  Duluth's  rival  as  a  lake  port.  But 
all  this  wealth  is  of  little  account  in  comparison  with  that 
of  agriculture.  Despite  the  rigor  of  its  climate,  Canada, 
thanks  to  patience  and  observation,  has  been  made  to  pro 
duce  practically  everything.  The  Ontario  orchards  vie  with 
those  of  Columbia  in  vegetables,  fruits,  apples,  peaches, 
plums  and  cherries,  ripened  by  four  months  of  sunshine 
and  short  nights.  Canning  factories  are  already  at  work. 
The  grapes  even  produce  a  sweet  wine  appreciated  by  the 
Canadians.  North  of  British  Columbia  and  Alberta,  be 
tween  the  Great  Slave  Lake  and  the  Peace  River,  the  super 
intendent  of  forests,  Mr.  Elihu  Stewart,  is  advocating  a 


452  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

methodical  exploration  of  the  country.  In  the  valley  of 
the  Mackenzie  River,  that  gigantic  tributary  of  the  frozen 
Arctic  Ocean,  this  official,  on  July  15,  saw  potato  plants 
in  flower,  ripe  peas,  tomatoes,  onions,  rhubarb,  beetroot 
and  cabbages ;  strawberries,  blackberries  and  currants  had 
been  already  gathered.  Some  Indians  who  came  from  the 
frontier  of  Alaska  had  lost  two  of  their  dogs  through  the 
heat.  Modern  methods  of  locomotion  make  it  possible 
to  inhabit  and  develop  these  districts  of  thermic  ex 
tremes,  which  were  formerly  almost  inaccessible.  From 
fifteen  to  eighteen  hours  of  sunshine  every  day  for  three 
or  four  months  spells  wealth.  Without  going  so  far  afield, 
we  have  only  to  look  at  the  Manitoba  farms  —  some  of 
them  model  ones  —  which  are  becoming  famous  for  their 
variety  of  produce,  in  which  not  only  cereals  but  maize, 
hops  and  tobacco  find  a  place ;  for  their  pastures,  on  which 
horses,  cattle,  hogs  and  sheep  are  raised ;  for  all  kinds  of 
poultry  and  dairy  produce,  from  milking  by  machinery 
(a  process  of  doubtful  value)  to  incubating  eggs  and  mak 
ing  butter  and  cheese.  Even  bees  have  been  acclimatized. 
The  honey  was  frozen  at  first,  but  means  have  been  found 
to  shelter  them  from  the  cold  and  let  them  increase  and 
multiply.  They  are  not  only  productive,  but  they  fertilize 
the  country  and  are  thus  doubly  advantageous.  West 
ward,  and  still  farther  westward,  are  the  ranches,  the  herds 
of  cattle  and,  above  all,  the  prairie,  Canada's  real  store 
house  of  abundance.  It  is  a  vast  and  uninterrupted  ex 
panse  of  wheat  land,  in  itself  quite  a  France  or  a  Hungary 
for  this  cereal.  The  crop  ripens  in  a  hundred  days  and 
the  barley  and  oats  require  even  less.  There  is  unlimited 
space,  without  restrictions,  as  well  as  light  and  continuous 
heat,  followed  by  a  long  winter's  rest,  during  which  the 
land  renews  itself  beneath  the  snow,  and  the  farmer  can 
vanish  too  and  travel  elsewhere.  Cultivation  begins  with 
the  month  of  March,  and  is  very  soon  done. 


COMPETITION  453 

Motoculture 

The  American  teams  of  thirty  horses  are  out  of  date. 
Steam  and  gasoline  have  beaten  them.  As  I  have  said,  every 
farmer  has  his  own  automobile.  There  are  already  5000 
motor  plows  in  the  three  central  provinces,  and,  in  a  few 
years,  they  will  be  reckoned  by  hundreds  of  thousands. 
In  this  endless  plain  they  have  ample  scope.  Each  motor 
hauls  ten,  twelve  or  twenty  plows,  and  moves  at  a  rate 
of  three  miles  an  hour.  Even  if  this  were  an  exaggeration 
and  the  real  speed  be  only  a  mile  and  a  quarter,  a  machine 
hauling  twenty  plows  will  cut  25  miles  of  furrows  in  an 
hour,  250  miles  in  ten  hours,  and  2500  miles  in  a  week. 
These  figures  still  haunted  me  when  I  returned  to  France. 
In  my  own  district,  where  there  is  rich  agricultural  land,  I 
have  a  farm  of  75  acres  on  which  the  farmer,  a  good  worker, 
wears  out  his  arms,  his  horses  and  his  plows. 

Pere  Monnier 

Stopping  by  the  roadside,  I  see  a  strange  form  in  a  small 
field  on  the  further  side  of  the  brook.  Two  arms  are  working 
a  hooked  implement  that  digs  into  the  earth,  turns  it  over, 
comes  up  and  goes  down  again,  and  so  on  for  hours  and 
hours,  just  as  it  has  done  for  generations  and  centuries. 
These  two  arms  belong  to  two  shoulders  bent  down  to  the 
ground,  and  the  shoulders  belong  to  an  old  French  peasant 
with  a  bent  back,  plowing  his  furrow  just  as  he  did  when  he 
was  young  and  as  all  the  old  peasants  still  do.  "Is  that 
you,  pere  Monnier  ?"  I  ask,  and  he  replies  with  a  cheerful, 
"Yes,  it  is,"  without  standing  up  —  a  feat  which  he  is  no 
longer  able  to  perform.  There  are  a  great  many  others 
who  cannot  stand  upright  —  a  great  many  old  tillers  of 
the  soil  who,  with  their  heads  close  to  their  knees,  go  on 
uncomplainingly  with  their  few  yards  of  furrows,  while 


454  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

the  Canadian  machine  cuts  its  twenty-five  miles  in  an 
hour. 

If  the  farmer  does  not  own  one  of  these  machines,  he 
hires  it;  and  when  the  plowing  is  finished,  it  does  the 
harrowing,  sowing  and  rolling,  reaps,  binds  and  thrashes 
the  wheat  and  hauls  it  to  the  nearest  railway  station, 
unless  the  farmer  is  afraid  of  the  men  who  make  corners 
and  has  bought  or  hired  a  movable  shed,  with  tin  com 
partments,  in  which  he  stores  his  grain.  He  gets  rid  of  it, 
however,  in  most  cases.  The  process  is  very  simple.  The 
station  is  provided  with  storehouses,  elevators  and  sheds. 
He  obtains  a  receipt  certifying  to  the  quality  of  his  wheat. 
This  document  is  as  good  as  money ;  the  banks  will  discount 
it,  and  he  can  use  it  in  payment  for  the  goods  he  orders 
from  the  East.  When  the  machine  has  nothing  else  to  do, 
it  pumps  up  water,  saws  wood  and  crushes  grain  and 
potatoes.  It  is  just  as  necessary  for  the  Canadian  farmer 
to  be  a  good  mechanic  as  it  is  for  ours  to  know  how  to  look 
after  horses.  The  more  isolated  the  farm,  the  more  the 
farmer  tries  to  learn,  and  he  is  helped  to  do  so.  In  addi 
tion  to  the  Dominion  and  provincial  governments  and  the 
municipalities,  which  do  a  great  deal,  the  railway  companies, 
whose  best  customer  he  is,  develop  his  education  and, 
consequently,  his  productive  capacity.  They  have  spe 
cially  fitted  cars  in  which  competent  lecturers  pay  visits 
to  the  country  stations  and  give  practical  addresses  and 
advice  at  fixed  dates  upon  all  sorts  of  agricultural  ques 
tions. 

Thanks  to  these  forms  of  progress,  the  output  of  Cana 
dian  wheat  has  risen  from  5,400,000  hectoliters  in  1876  to 
362,500,000  in  1909.  The  exports,  which  totaled  only 
2,340,956  bushels  in  1885,  came  to  49,741,350  bushels  in 
1910.  The  comparative  smallness  of  this  figure  is  due  to 
inadequate  means  of  transport.  Otherwise  the  total 
would  be  much  larger. 


COMPETITION  455 

Three  Transcontinental  Railways 

Here  we  come  to  another  wonder.  The  Canadians  have 
been  quite  mad  over  their  railways.  One  would  have 
thought  that  a  single  transcontinental  line  was  a  good  deal 
in  competition  with  the  American  lines,  but  the  Canadians 
now  have  three,  and  even  this  is  not  enough.  I  am  told 
that  half  the  wheat  crop  was  left  on  the  land  last  year  be 
cause  there  was  no  means  of  taking  it  to  market.  Sir  Wil 
liam  van  Home,  who,  like  Lord  Mount  Stephen,  was  one 
of  the  earliest  advocates  of  transcontinental  lines  across 
Canada,  and  is  an  ex-president  of  the  Canadian  Pacific 
Railway,  a  man  of  action  and  initiative  who  has  taken  up 
all  sorts  of  successful  enterprises,  told  me,  in  his  gallery  of 
French  and  other  European  masterpieces  at  Montreal,  what 
he  considered  ought  to  be  the  function  of  railroads  in  Canada. 
"The  railways  are  hampered  only  by  the  superabundance 
of  traffic/7  he  said.  "We  are  in  the  same  position  as  the 
United  States.  What  Mr.  James  J.  Hill  told  you  about  the 
lack  of  terminal  facilities  is  as  true  here  as  it  is  there.  We 
plan  for  twenty  years,  and  the  accommodation  is  exhausted 
in  five.  We  have  to  remove  our  freight  yards  outside  the 
cities,  but  this  is  a  small  matter  in  comparison  with  the 
essential  and  urgent  questions  of  lines.  In  this  respect 
we  shall  never  to  able  to  move  fast  or  far  enough.  The 
railroad  is  the  best  pioneer.  Our  western  farms  are  iso 
lated  from  one  another,  instead  of  being  near  railway  sta 
tions.  In  the  agricultural  districts  we  ought  to  have  so 
many  lines  that  no  farm  would  be  more  than  ten  miles  from 
the  nearest.  There  should  be  parallel  lines  every  ten  or 
twenty  miles,  each  connected  with  the  next.  This  is  what 
will  be  done  and  is  being  done,  and  this  is  what  we  need 
for  the  conveyance  of  future  crops;  otherwise,  we  shall 
go  on  being  overcrowded,  there  will  be  a  slackening  of 
production  and  dissatisfaction  will  show  itself.  Our  trans- 


456  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

continental  lines  extend  into  the  United  States,  beyond 
St.  Paul,  but  they  are  insufficient.  They  are  merely  a 
connecting  link  between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans 
and  end  at  the  great  new  cities,  created  by  us,  where  our 
fleets  of  vessels,  both  slow  and  fast,  are  stationed.  Speed 
is  less  important  than  cheapness  for  a  great  many  articles. 
Our  mail  steamers,  cargo  boats  and  four-masted  sailing 
ships  form  an  extension  of  our  railways.  We  are  the  high 
road  to  China.  Henceforth  the  flow  of  our  exports  will 
make  its  way  east  and  west .  along  our  railways,  following 
a  current  that  sets  both  ways.  This  current,  strong  as  it 
is,  needs  others  to  help  it." 

Interior  Navigation 

"  Far  from  apprehending  competition  from  them,  we 
want  them.  We  need  help  from  our  rivers,  great 
stretches  of  which  are  available  during  long  days  of 
summer,  quite  long  enough  for  the  quantities  of  heavy 
goods,  timber,  ores  and  cereals  they  are  likely  to  be 
called  upon  to  transport.  We  need  the  lakes,  too,  and 
cannot  exist  without  them.  The  tonnage  of  the  shipping 
that  goes  through  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie  Canal  is  three  times 
as  great  as  that  of  the  Suez  Canal,  and  the  tonnage  of  the 
vessels  plying  on  the  Great  Lakes  is  six  times  as  large.  Ore 
alone  represents  41  million  tons.  We  shall  never  have 
too  many  Canadian  or  American  routes.  We  do  not  con 
sider  the  American  ports  as  rivals.  Fort  William  competes 
with  Duluth,  but  both  are  needed  for  the  development  of 
our  transports.  Navigation  on  the  lakes  themselves  will 
have  to  be  shortened." 

In  addition  to  the  information  given  me  by  Sir  William 
van  Home  and  his  successor,  Sir  Thomas  Shaughnessy, 
my  friend  Dandurand,  formerly  president  of  the  Canadian 
senate,  has  supplied  me  with  facts  that  give  some  idea 


COMPETITION  457 

of  what  the  future  of  canals  in  Canada  is  likely  to  be. 
The  Welland  Canal,  which  is  considerably  shorter  than 
the  American  canal,  will  attract  vessels  plying  between 
Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario.  Ten  years  ago,  in  1901,  the  ton 
nage  passing  through  Canadian  canals  was  5,665,259;  in 
1910  it  was  42,990,608.  A  great  scheme  for  still  further 
shortening  the  route  is  under  consideration.  If  it  were 
carried  out,  ships  coming  from  Sault  Ste.  Marie  would 
travel  by  way  of  Georgian  Bay,  the  French  River  and 
Ottawa  to  Montreal  and  the  ocean.  This  route  would 
bring  Fort  William  within  4123  miles  of  Liverpool,  or  806 
miles  less  than  by  way  of  New  York ! 

Hudson  Bay 

And  this  is  not  all.  When  I  was  at  Quebec,  the  Prime 
Minister  of  the  province,  Sir  Lomer  Gouin,  told  me  the 
story  of  his  conversion  as  regards  Hudson  Bay  railroads. 
I  had  hitherto  supposed  that  the  Hudson  Bay  district 
contained  nothing  but  Eskimos,  reindeers,  Polar  bears  and 
ice  (and  I  believe  he  had  the  same  idea),  but  he  now  regards 
it  as  a  great  reservoir  of  natural  resources,  to  be  developed 
in  accordance  with  the  fixed  principle  of  limiting  cultiva 
tion  and  transportation  to  four  or  five  months  of  the  year 
and  leaving  eight  months  for  manufactures. 

The  old  provinces  all  want  to  extend  their  frontiers. 
They  complain  that  their  interests  were  not  considered, 
and  they  demand  a  hinterland  extending  as  far  as  the  Bay, 
and  they  all,  more  or  less,  want  railways.  Both  the  Liberal 
and  Conservative  parties  have  pledged  themselves  to  the 
construction  of  a  railroad  starting  from  Saskatchewan  and 
Manitoba  and  ending  at  Fort  Churchill  or  Fort  Nelson. 
The  line  has  already  been  carried  as  far  as  Le  Pas.  This 
does  not  prevent  ambitious  Edmonton  from  having  a  scheme 
of  its  own,  and  Quebec  is  thinking  about  St.  James'  Bay 


458  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

and  Rupert  Bay,  which  can  be  easily  reached  by  the  great 
Nottaway  River.  It  is  only  a  matter  of  275  miles  —  five 
or  six  hours'  journey  —  to  connect  with  the  transcontinental 
line.  There  are  two  objects  in  view,  the  one  serving  as  a 
complement  to  the  other.  Firstly  are  transports,  which 
will  relieve  the  country  of  its  plethora  of  produce  and  enable 
it  to  be  exported  cheaply,  from  July  15  to  Sept.  15,  in  spite 
of  the  floes  and  icebergs,  of  which  Canadians  seem  to  think 
very  little ;  and  secondly  are  the  natural  riches  of  the  soil 
and  water,  which  need  no  further  description.  The  im 
mense  promontory  of  Ungava,  hitherto  marked  on  the 
maps  like  an  unexplored  desert,  is  in  itself  an  inexhaustible 
reservoir  of  wealth.  To  arguments  based  on  the  intense 
cold  and  a  latitude  between  fifty  and  sixty  degrees,  geogra 
phers  reply  that  latitude  is  not  everything,  and  that  there 
are  very  rich  and  productive  countries  in  Europe,  such  as 
Holland,  England  and  Scotland,  between  the  fortieth  and 
fiftieth  degrees,  while  beyond  the  sixtieth  we  have  Norway, 
Sweden  and  northern  Russia.  Moreover,  only  the  coast 
of  Hudson  Bay  is  frozen  in  winter,  and  the  bay  is  open 
to  navigation  seven  or  eight  months  of  the  year.  Before 
long  we  shall  see  Hudson  Bay  competing  with  the  Great 
Lakes,  whereon  navigation  is  also  stopped  in  winter  but  is 
prodigiously  active  in  summer. 

Unlike  what  would  happen  in  Europe,  all  this  will  be 
done  very  quickly,  the  development  of  transport  in  North 
America  being  stimulated  to  the  highest  pitch  by  the 
ambition  to  establish  a  steady  stream  of  traffic  over  a 
globe-circling  line  of  communication  before  the  opening  of 
the  Panama  Canal. 

While  all  these  statesmen  and  business  men,  on  both 
sides  of  the  frontier,  were  giving  me  their  accounts  of  the 
colossal  rival  enterprises  they  have  planned  and  will  carry 
out,  I  thought  of  the  delays  that  France,  in  spite  of  her 
national  characteristic  of  alertness,  has  to  endure.  I 


COMPETITION  459 

do  not  refer  to  the  delay  that  must  necessarily  occur  while 
a  scheme  is  being  planned  and  thought  out  in  advance,  two 
processes  which  constitute  one  of  the  advantages  of  her 
long  experience.  Neither  do  I  mean  the  delay  inseparable 
from  certain  forms  of  progress,  which  would  be  endangered 
by  too  great  haste.  On  the  contrary,  I  believe  in  slowness 
and  distrust  the  intoxication  born  of  speed.  I  observe 
that  sailing  ships  and  windmills  are  reviving  and  that, 
although  we  have  automobiles,  we  cannot  do  without 
horses.  The  ox,  the  mule,  the  donkey,  the  dog,  the  goat, 
the  reindeer,  the  camel  and  the  elephant  will  continue  to 
discharge  their  humble  duty  as  means  of  transport  between 
the  center  of  production  and  the  road,  port  or  station.  They 
will  still  be  the  little  streams  that  make  the  great  rivers. 
No ;  I  was  thinking  how  slow  we  are  in  coming  to  a  decision 
and  how  incapable  we  seem  to  be  of  carrying  out  public 
works  which  are  not  less  urgent  than  those  accomplished  in 
America  and  are  much  less  costly,  much  easier  and  are  in 
dispensable  to  complete  what  the  Americans  have  begun. 
Through  not  doing  our  share  of  the  work  in  time,  we  break 
the  line  of  communication  and  cause  it  to  turn  elsewhere. 

Our  Slowness.     The  Port  of  Brest 

The  port  of  Brest  is  an  instance.  Nature,  which  has 
always  lavished  her  gifts  on  France,  gave  her,  at  Brest,  a 
splendid,  deep  harbor  opening  right  on  to  the  ocean  highway 
and  constituting  a  natural  entrance  which,  if  properly 
fitted  up,  would  attract  all  the  American  and  Asiatic  traffic 
to  Paris  and  central  Europe.  It  would  save  twelve  hours' 
sea  voyage  and  considerably  decrease  the  risk  of  collision 
in  the  Channel.  Even  our  great  battleships  come  in  and 
out  of  Brest  harbor,  but  mail  steamers  do  not  use  it.  Light 
houses,  submarine  bells,  railroad  tracks,  wharves  and  so 
on  are  wanting,  and  so  is  the  decision  to  do  what  has  been 


460  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

an  urgent  need  for  years.  What  are  we  waiting  for?  Do 
we  intend  to  let  the  time  slip  by  until  commerce  is  tired  of 
the  delay  and  turns  away  from  the  natural  route  that  we 
are  too  inert  to  open  up?  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  we 
were  the  people  who  cut  through  the  Isthmus  of  Suez  and 
conceived  and  began  the  Panama  Canal.  We  are  afflicted 
with  a  kind  of  loss  of  commercial  will  power. 

The  Armed  Peace  System 

The  fact  is  —  and  it  must  be  reiterated,  because  it  ex 
plains  a  great  many  things  —  that  France  is  living  in  a 
state  of  armed  peace.1  All  the  trouble  comes  from  the 
Franco-German  war,  or  rather  from  one  of  its  consequences. 
France  would  have  put  up  with  a  defeat  for  which  her  re 
jected  imperial  government  was  more  responsible  than 
herself.  She  could  have  forgiven  Germany  for  Sedan  just 
as  she  forgave  England  for  Waterloo ;  but  the  root  of  the 
evil  lies  in  a  violation  of  justice,  and  is  both  a  misfortune 
and  a  sign  of  progress.  Assuming  that  France  could 
turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  complaints  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine, 
they  would  eventually  obtain  a  hearing  from  the  con 
science  of  the  world  at  large.  Time  cannot  alter  the  fact 
that  a  violation  of  justice  was  committed.  Germany  will 
not  give  up  her  conquest,  Bismarck  himself  was  averse 
to  it,  but  it  has  cost  her  too  much  bloodshed.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  spirit  of  our  times  cannot  sanction  this 
conquest.  "In  our  day,"  wrote  Benjamin  Constant  in 
1803,  "every  one  would  have  been  on  the  side  of  Carthage." 
The  evil  has  been  made  irreparable,  not  by  victory  but  by 
conquest.  The  Germans  were  not  satisfied  with  being 
victorious.  They  have  been  "blindly  triumphant  over 
their  successes,"  as  Franklin  said,  and,  in  so  doing,  they 
threaten  every  one.  The  conflict  is  between  Germany 

1  Will  armed  peace  last  after  the  present  war  ? 


COMPETITION  461 

and  France,  but  it  is  also  between  Germany  and  modern 
civilization.  The  problem  has  undergone  a  transformation 
concurrently  with  the  progress  of  ideas.  It  has  become  a 
question  of  principle,  and  more  a  matter  of  morality  than 
of  politics.  It  is  therefore,  in  a  sense,  less  acute,  but  it  is 
more  serious  and  more  impossible  than  ever  to  avoid. 
The  spirit  of  conquest  cannot  be  reconciled  with  the  spirit 
of  our  time  unless  at  least  it  can  plead,  as  an  excuse,  that 
it  has  rendered  a  service  to  civilization  or  was  consented 
to  by  the  conquered  people.  It  breeds  nothing  but  the 
revolt  and  uncertainty  from  which  every  one  is  suffering. 
Under  such  circumstances  as  these,  how  can  France  or 
Germany,  or  the  countries  whose  interests  are  bound  up 
with  theirs,  be  free  to  embark  upon  the  immense  and  far- 
reaching  undertakings  in  which  the  United  States  are  in 
tensely  interested  ?  They  are  all  crushed  by  the  burden  of 
debt  from  the  wars  of  the  past  and  expenditure  on  the  wars 
of  the  future.  Half  their  resources  is  wasted  on  fruitless 
antagonism. 

A  Century  of  Peace 

Canada  and  the  United  States  have  benefited  by  a 
precisely  opposite  state  of  things,  up  to  the  present.  Their 
economic  conflicts,  their  race  to  spend  the  most  money  on 
railways  and  lakes,  on  appliances  and  their  healthy  and 
fruitful  rivalry,  are  the  result  of  a  hundred  years  of  un 
broken  and  unarmed  peace.  In  our  European  ignorance 
of  things  American,  let  us  not  assert  that  this  peace  was 
easy  to  establish  and  maintain !  Canada  was  the  last 
colony  left  to  the  English  in  North  America  after  the  War 
of  Independence  and  the  War  in  1812,  during  which  they 
burned  the  capitol  at  Washington.  Canada  might  have 
been  England's  road  to  revenge.  It  might  have  been  a 
constant  temptation  for  the  Americans,  and  a  cause  of 
continual  quarrels  for  both.  There  are  very  few  inter- 


462  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

national  situations  in  Europe  more  delicate  than  Canada's 
has  remained  for  a  century.  It  was  far  away  from  the 
defeated  motherland,  and  bordered  on  the  victorious 
United  States.  The  truth  of  this  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  the  English  took  advantage  of  the  decline  of  Napoleon's 
power  to  resume  the  offensive  in  1812,  until,  after  having 
been  again  defeated  and  on  the  point  of  being  driven  into 
the  sea  at  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  they  signed  the  Treaty 
of  Ghent,  Dec.  24,  1814.  It  was  ratified  Feb.  17,  1815, 
and  completed  by  an  agreement  dated  April  28,  1817. 

It  was  indeed  an  agreement!  The  two  irreconcilable 
brothers  decided  to  disarm,  and  they  disarmed !  They 
have  had  plenty  of  opportunities  to  revoke  their  pledges. 
First  there  was  the  proclamation  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
which  was  an  indirect  appeal  to  insurrection  in  the  still 
unemancipated  European  colonies  in  the  New  World. 
Then  came  the  encouragement  given  by  the  Holy  Alliance, 
Metternich's  appeals  and  the  action  taken  by  Emperor 
Alexander  I  against  the  "Jacobin  American  republics.'7 
England  might  have  thought  it  to  her  interest  to  take 
advantage  of  this  action,  instead  of  discouraging  it  and 
eventually  making  it  abortive,  owing  to  the  powerful  in 
fluence  exercised  by  her  prime  minister,  Canning.  Eng 
land  might  also  have  profited  by  the  War  of  Secession, 
the  Alabama  question  and  many  others,  but  she  had  a 
clearer  conception  of  her  interest,  which  was  identical 
with  that  of  the  Lancashire  cotton  spinners,  and  she  did  not 
give  way  to  the  temptation.  This  was  greatly  to  her  credit, 
and  she  not  only  acted  wisely  but  set  a  great  example.  For 
one  hundred  years  the  two  belligerents  have  observed  the 
peace  on  which  they  agreed.  It  has  been  a  complete, 
unreserved  and  absolute  peace.  The  inland  seas,  for  which 
they  once  contended  and  on  which  they  fought  naval 
battles  commemorated  in  the  Capitol  Museum  at  Washing 
ton,  have  become  an  arena  for  their  economic  conflicts 


COMPETITION  463 

without  having  ever  again  been  plowed  by  the  keel  to  a 
single  man-of-war  and  without  a  single  fort  or  gun  to  pro 
tect  a  frontier  three  thousand  miles  long.  A  few  redcoats 
and  a  few  guns  are  kept  at  Quebec,  as  a  matter  of  form, 
to  show  that  Canada  is  loyal  to  the  mother  country.  At 
Plattsburg,  on  the  United  States  frontier,  I  also  saw  the 
American  army,  as  I  did  at  El  Paso,  on  the  Mexican  fron 
tier.  The  army,  or  rather  the  northern  police  force, 
amounted,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  to  800  men,  and  it  was 
quite  a  financial  luxury,  every  soldier  being  paid  as  much 
as  an  officer.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  England  and  the  United 
States  are  two  great  countries  that  have  become  reconciled 
to  one  another  without  armies. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  the  beauty  of  this  arrange 
ment  is  not  realized  by  all  Americans,  but  those  who  do 
not  perceive  it  are  a  miserable  exception.  The  views  of 
true  Americans  are  interpreted  by  Senator  Elihu  Root, 
the  great  United  States  lawyer,  formerly  secretary  of 
state  and  secretary  of  war,  who  submitted  the  following 
resolution  to  Congress  at  Washington  (November,  1912) 
in  connection  with  the  preparations  for  celebrating  the 
centenary  of  this  peace : 

"That  on  Feb.  17,  1915,  one  hundred  years  after  the 
ratification  of  the  treaty  of  peace,  the  British  and  United 
States  Legislatures  do  suspend  their  labors  for  five  min 
utes,  exactly  at  the  same  time,  so  that  the  whole  of  the 
English-speaking  world  may  devote  these  five  minutes 
to  meditation  over  the  benefits  of  a  century  of  peace; 
and  that  a  scientific  committee  be  appointed  to  decide  at 
what  hour  the  above-mentioned  period  of  five  minutes 
should  begin  in  the  two  assemblies." 1 

1  This  festival  did  not  take  place.  The  war  we  in  Europe  hoped  to 
avoid  has  spread  over  nearly  the  whole  of  Europe  and  Japan ;  and  there 
will  be  no  adequate  mention  of  this  magnificent  proof  that  peace  can  be 
maintained  for  a  century  between  two  great  powers. 


464  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Thanks  to  this  century  of  peace,  the  United  States  and 
Canada  have  been  able  to  save  countless  millions  of  money 
and  devote  them  to  their  respective  creative  and  construc 
tive  enterprises.  Canada  has  profited  still  more  than  the 
United  States,  for,  although  the  latter  have  faithfully 
observed  the  treaty  of  1815  in  regard  to  Canada,  they  have 
nevertheless  spent  money  recklessly,  as  I  propose  to  show 
later  on,  on  their  army,  their  navy  and  their  pensions.  To 
all  these  advantages,  Canada  has  been  able  to  add  that  of 
the  smallest  military  burden,  which  has  been  practically 
nil  up  to  the  present.  No  more  than  her  mines  and  her 
forest  has  she  squandered  her  young  men  and  her  money. 
The  natural  result  is  that  living  is  easier  in  Canada  than  in 
the  United  States,  and  that  there  is  immigration  into  the 
new  country  from  the  one  that  is  the  more  heavily  taxed. 

Contagious  Dreadnought  Fever 

I  am  quite  aware  that  the  Canadians  themselves  are  in 
danger  of  giving  way  to  temptation  and  ordering  dread 
noughts  (like  every  other  nation,  including  the  South 
Americans  and  even  the  Turks)  either  from  British  ship 
builders  or,  if  need  be,  from  an  industry  of  their  own, 
which  they  would  have  to  build  up  and  of  which  they  might 
not  be  able  to  rid  themselves.  They  will,  however,  think 
twice  before  they  commit  themselves ;  and  if  they  succumb, 
which  can  still  be  doubted,  they  will  confine  themselves  to 
a  demonstration  of  loyalty  towards  Great  Britain  and  to 
a  more  or  less  handsome  monetary  contribution,  which  is 
openly  described,  even  in  London,  as  throwing  money  into 
the  sea.  Further  than  this  they  will  not  go.  Clever  and 
far-reaching  as  are  the  propaganda  adopted  by  the  manu- 

In  an  article  entitled  "  The  Peace  of  Ghent  and  the  War  of  1914-1915  " 
published  in  the  American  "Review  of  Reviews"  of  January  15,  1915,  I 
expressed  my  sense  of  disappointment  at  the  failure  to  take  any  notice  of 
the  great  anniversary  on  December  24,  1914.  (March,  1915.) 


COMPETITION  465 

facturers  of  war  material,  and  by  the  Hearst  international 
news  service  and  publications,  they  cannot  be  completely 
hidden,  in  new  countries,  under  a  mask  of  patriotism,  but 
stand  revealed  for  what  they  are  —  the  demands  of  a  new 
and  insatiable  industry  that  lives  on  the  others  and  profits 
by  protection  carried  to  the  furthest  possible  limit  of  excess. 
I  cannot  conceive  the  Manitoba  farmers,  and  still  less  those 
in  Saskatchewan  and  Alberta,  who  left  the  United  States 
so  as  to  escape  from  too  heavy  burdens :  I  cannot  conceive 
the  cosmopolitan  crowd  of  immigrants  from  all  sorts  of 
countries,  Irishmen,  Scotsmen,  French,  Germans,  Austri- 
ans,  Scandinavians  and  even  colonies  of  Russian  Dukho- 
bors,  dipping  into  their  already  scanty  hoard,  which 
they  need  for  their  plows  and  their  schools,  to  pay  for 
what  are  already  called  "tin  fleets,"  out  of  date  even 
before  they  are  finished.  Neither  can  I  conceive  them  as 
supplying  these  fleets  with  crews,  of  which  England  herself, 
and  France  still  more,  is  beginning  to  run  short.  To  ob 
tain  the  required  number  of  sailors  and  engineers,  skilled 
men,  who  are  already  scarce,  will  have  to  be  engaged  at 
high  wages.  The  result  will  be  to  deprive  factories  and 
farms  of  workers  and  increase  wages  in  general,  simply  to 
form  superfluous  crews  that  will  compete  with  indispensable 
colonists.  The  expenditure  will  be  regarded  as  not  only 
very  heavy,  but  unjustifiable.  There  are  to  be  three  dread 
noughts  to  begin  with.  This  will  be  nothing  at  all  in 
comparison  with  the  American  fleets,  but  it  nevertheless 
involves  a  preliminary  outlay  of  forty  million  dollars,  to 
be  provided  by  a  people  of  scarcely  eight  million  souls. 
This  means  five  dollars  per  head  of  the  population  and,  as 
the  very  poor  do  not  pay  taxes,  a  heavy  burden  will  be 
laid  on  the  manufacturing  and  business  interests ;  but  this 
is  only  a  beginning.  These  three  battleships  must  be  kept 
in  commission,  supplied  with  coal,  provisions,  etc.,  repaired 
and  replaced  when  obsolete.  Docks  must  be  built  for  them, 

2H 


466  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

and  the  subsidiary  expense,  which  governments  never 
mention  but  which  are  enormous,  must  be  faced.  Naval 
staffs  will  be  needed  and,  consequently,  a  naval  school, 
involving  a  naval  caste  and  a  naval  spirit.  And  to  what 
purpose?  To  make  a  show  of  resistance  to  the  United 
States  in  case  of  emergency?  Germany,  according  to  the 
semi-official  utterances,  is  the  real  enemy.  Why  not  say 
Japan  (in  which  case,  when  the  three  battleships  for  the 
Atlantic  are  finished,  another  three  will  be  wanted  for  the 
Pacific)  ?  Admitting,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  that  these 
weak  reasons  are  sufficient,  and  that  the  future  Canadian 
navy  will  simply  be  a  loyal  contribution  towards  the  naval 
expenses  of  the  mother  country,  the  fact  remains  that  this 
contribution  will  have  to  be  paid,  and  that  it  may  be 
considered  too  much  for  a  colony  of  only  recent  growth. 
We  must  remember  that,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the 
Americans  rose  in  revolt  rather  than  pay  the  taxes 
demanded  by  Great  Britain.  It  is  therefore  probable, 
on  all  these  grounds,  that  Canada  will  keep  her  expenditure 
on  naval  armaments  within  reasonable  limits,  and  that 
the  young  British  colony  will  thereby  obtain  one  more 
advantage  in  its  struggle  with  the  United  States.  It  is 
also  possible  that  the  latter  will  have  to  moderate  their 
outlay,  so  as  not  to  risk  their  already  threatened  supremacy. 
Canadian  commerce,  I  am  told,  represents  90  per  cent 
in  value  per  head  of  the  population,  as  against  30  per  cent 
in  the  United  States.  The  struggle  is  becoming  a  serious 
one. 

Whatever  may  be  the  outcome  of  this  emulation  between 
the  two  great  neighboring  countries  in  North  America,  one 
would  think  that  this  time,  at  any  rate,  we  have  found 
something  that  no  other  nation  can  pretend  to  rival.  Such 
a  conclusion  would  be  mistaken,  because  it  would  be  based 
on  appearances.  The  rest  of  the  world  has  its  turn  when 
the  profits  of  progress  are  distributed. 


COMPETITION  467 

4.    Universal  Competition 

The  United  States  are  thus  threatened  with  competition 
from  the  whole  world,  and  this  is  what  they  ought  to  bear 
in  mind.  Canada  is  not  the  only  privileged  country. 
There  are  many  others,  either  very  powerful  or  very  active, 
that  must  be  taken  into  account.  I  forbear  to  cite  China, 
whose  resources  and  immense  population  I  have  been 
accused  of  using  for  scare  purposes,  although  they  ought 
to  furnish  reasons  for  a  new  European  policy  of  agreement 
and  cooperation.  I  will  also  say  nothing  about  Japan, 
which  has  been  militarized  by  Europe,  is  in  danger  of  losing 
its  good  qualities  for  our  bad  ones  and  whose  higher  evolu 
tion  has  thereby,  I  fear,  been  stopped.  The  Far  East  is 
not  the  whole  world,  but  an  unknown  region  that  may  be 
left  out  of  consideration  for  the  moment.  Other  countries 
supply  us  with  quite  as  much  material  as  we  need. 

The  West  Indies 

The  United  States  see  and  know  nothing  of  any  country 
but  the  United  States.  This  is  their  strength  and  also 
their  weakness.  History  and  geography  have  many  sur 
prises  in  store  for  them.  Competition  is  everywhere. 
Without  going  beyond  the  New  World,  let  us  take  the 
case  of  Cuba.  As  we  have  seen,  it  needed  only  one  good 
and  able  man,  General  Wood,  to  raise  the  educational 
standard  of  the  people  tenfold  and  show  that  the  promise 
of  this  terrestrial  paradise  may  come  to  full  realization 
—  a  paradise  possessing  not  only  great  fertility  and  an 
exceptional  climate  but  a  population  characterized  by  in 
telligence,  gracefulness  and  courage.  Private  initiative, 
such  as  was  exercised  by  Sir  William  van  Home,  was  all 
that  was  required  to  multiply  tenfold  the  value  of  Cuba's 
forests  with  their  rare  kinds  of  timber,  its  mines  and  its 


468  AMERICA  AND  HER   PROBLEMS 

produce  in  general.     But  Cuba  is  only  one  island  out  of 
a  very  great  number  in  the  privileged  region  of  the  Antilles. 


South  America 

What  are  we  to  say  of  South  America  and  its  great  river, 
the  Amazon,  stjll  in  its  commercial  infancy,  the  Plata, 
Brazil,  Chile,  Peru  and  the  Argentine  Republic?  What 
of  the  African  continent,  which  was  the  world's  granary 
and  treasure  house  in  ancient  times?  Why  should  not 
Egypt  and  the  old  Roman  provinces,  now  known  as  Algeria, 
Morocco  and  Tunisia,  and  once  more  open  to  colonizing, 
begin  again  to  export  their  prodigious  harvests  after  cen 
turies  of  rest? 

The  African  Continent 

Has  the  Nile  ceased  to  fertilize  its  banks  and  its  delta? 
Has  it  not  great  competitors  of  its  own,  the  Congo,  the 
Niger  and  the  Zambesi,  which  have  hardly  been  explored 
at  all?  What  will  Africa  be  like  in  another  thirty  years 
when  it  has  plenty  of  machinery  and  navigable  routes  and 
can  be  crossed  by  railroad  from  Morocco  to  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  and  from  the  Indian  Ocean  on  the  East  to 
the  Atlantic  on  the  West? 


Australia.    Asia 

Do  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  the  British,  French  and 
Dutch  East  Indies  contain  no  natural  resources?  Are 
Asia  Minor,  Persia,  Mesopotamia,  Iran,  the  valley  of  the 
Indus,  Asiatic  Turkey  and  what  was  European  Turkey  and 
the  cradle  of  our  civilization,  to  remain  nothing  more  than 
a  vast  cemetery  ?  Does  Nature  put  on  mourning  for  man's 
crimes?  No;  she  appeals  against  their  barbarity;  she 
will  revive,  and  is  already  reviving. 


COMPETITION  469 

American  Ignorance  of  Russia 

All  this  will  take  a  very  long  time,  say  the  skeptics.  These 
numerous  sources  of  competition  will  certainly  not  come  into 
full  operation  at  the  same  time,  but  will  grow  in  proportion 
to  the  requirements  of  consumers.  This  may  be ;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  did  not  take  the  United  States  very  long, 
although  they  had  limited  means  of  action  and  were  only 
on  the  threshhold  of  modern  discoveries,  to  effect  a  revolu 
tion  in  European  industrial  conditions  by  their  competition. 
However,  let  us  consider  merely  the  situation  as  it  is  to-day 
and  the  competition  that  is  likely  to  arise  to-morrow.  Is 
Russia's  to  be  counted  as  nothing?  The  Americans  either 
ignore  the  Russians  or  treat  them  as  a  negligible  quantity, 
judging  them  by  their  form  of  government  instead  of  their 
resources  their  superabundance  of  population  and  their 
genius.  A  young  nation  themselves,  they  do  not  give 
credit  to  Russia  for  youth.  When  Mr.  Roosevelt  went 
on  his  tour  to  the  European  capitals,  he  visited  Budapest, 
as  it  was  quite  right  to  do,  but  he  left  Russia  out.  As 
I  am  constantly  telling  Americans,  the  Slavs  and  Russians 
must  be  reckoned  with.  You  may  well  envy  the  extent 
and  still  undeveloped  wealth  of  their  territory,  of  their 
mineral  deposits,  of  their  petroleum  wells  and  of  their 
still  intact  forests,  and  the  navigable  nature  of  their  great 
rivers,  connected  by  canals,  from  the  Baltic  and  the  White 
Sea  to  the  Black  Sea,  from  the  Dwina  to  the  Dnieper  and 
the  Volga.  You  must  also  reckon  with  their  population, 
of  which  you  transplanted  Europeans  have  no  idea,  because 
it  is  a  race  that  really  springs  from  the  soil  and  is  full  of 
life  and  passion.  Look  at  Russia's  artists,  thinkers  and 
writers,  and  listen  to  her  musicians.  Observe  what  her 
explorers  have  done.  What,  in  fact,  have  they  not  done  ? 
Tempered  and  hardened  like  steel  by  the  cold,  they  have 
dared  everything.  The  Arctic  Ocean  is  their  frontier  and 


470  AMERICA  AND   HER  PROBLEMS 

very  nearly  became  the  crown  of  their  empire.  Alaska 
once  belonged  to  them,  and  their  government  was  bold 
enough  to  want  to  appropriate  the  American  coast  of  the 
Pacific  and  close  it  to  the  Americans  by  joining  up  with 
the  Spanish  possessions.  All  this  occurred  less  than  a 
hundred  years  ago.  They  gave  way,  but  the  scheme  that 
was  abandoned  in  America  is  being  carried  out  in  Asia. 
It  would  have  been  a  magnificent  accomplishment  of 
human  initiative  had  it  not  been  clumsily  spoiled  by  govern 
mental  weakness,  war  and  revolution.  Had  Russia  imi 
tated  the  United  States  and  Canada,  and  built  railways 
and  canals  with  only  half  the  vast  sums  she  wasted  on  her 
war  with  Japan,  she  would  already  be  a  formidable  com 
petitor  in  the  world's  markets ;  but  her  reserves  are  so 
great,  and  the  needs  of  her  constantly  increasing  population 
are  so  small,  that  she  will  soon  have  made  up  for  her  mis 
takes.  Russia  is  still  Russia.  She  has  vanquished  cold. 
The  mere  fact  that  her  capital  is  in  the  alleged  uninhabi 
table  latitude  of  60  degrees  —  ten  degrees  farther  north 
than  Winnipeg  and  Vancouver  —  is  enough  to  show  her 
contempt  for  obstacles  which  people  have  so  long  agreed 
to  treat  as  insurmountable.  What  shall  we  say  of  Arch 
angel,  750  miles  farther  north  —  a  frozen  port  that 
provides  England  with  a  constant  supply  of  butter,  poul 
try,  fish,  fruit  and  grain,  in  direct  competition  with  Cana 
dian  produce? 

Another  Canada  in  Europe  and  Asia 

These  enterprises,  which  seemed  mad  enough  as  regards 
Europe,  were  only  the  beginning,  and  now  we  have  another 
Canada,  in  Europe  and  Asia,  preparing  to  take  part  in  the 
race  with  the  United  States.  We  find  Siberia,  wretchedly 
supplied  as  it  is  with  a  single  track  trunk  line  (no  better 
than  a  coach  in  comparison  with  the  American  transconti- 


COMPETITION  471 

nental  lines)  becoming  populated,  with  magical  and  para 
doxical  rapidity,  by  a  superior  class  of  political  exiles, 
opening  itself  to  cultivation,  waking  up  and  taking  part 
in  the  world's  general  life.  Siberia  has  mighty  and  famous 
rivers,  such  as  the  Obi,  the  Yenisei  and  the  Amur,  which, 
like  those  in  Canada,  need  nothing  but  men  and  capital  to 
turn  them  to  account.  Siberia  will  have  the  men,  and  has 
them  now,  because  the  Russians,  unlike  the  Americans,  have 
hitherto  proved  themselves  not  only  prolific  but  patient 
colonizers.  They  make  themselves  liked  by  the  natives, 
whom  they  do  not  kill  off  or  drive  before  them  but  asso 
ciate  with  their  work  and  treat  in  a  brotherly  spirit.  In  this 
way,  Siberia  is  becoming  a  second  Russian  Empire  still 
larger  than  the  first.  It  is  so  young,  alive  and  enterprising 
that  the  Russian  prime  minister,  the  ill-fated  Mr.  Stolypin, 
remarked  to  me  at  Petrograd  in  1909:  "We  shall  soon 
be  annexed  by  Siberia." 

This  vision  of  the  future  presented  itself  to  me  at  Mos 
cow,  the  commercial  capital  of  two  continents,  or  worlds. 
We  were  at  the  railroad  depot,  waiting  for  the  train  to  take 
us  back  to  France.  One  might  have  thought  Moscow 
large  and  important  enough  to  be  the  terminus  and  start 
ing  point  of  the  Russian  railways  for  central  Europe  and 
France ;  but  the  train  we  were  waiting  for,  and  which  runs 
regularly  and  punctually  in  spite  of  the  snow,  came  from 
Asia  —  from  Krasnoyarsk,  Irkutsk  and  Vladivostock.  Mos 
cow  was  merely  a  station  on  the  line !  Thus  is  the  earth 
girdled;  there  is  neither  beginning  nor  end,  but  constant 
moving  onward,  continuation  and  resumption.  Let  the 
United  States  beware !  No  one  admires  American  activity 
more  than  myself,  but  I  have  seen  a  great  many  other 
active  people  besides  the  Americans  throw  themselves  into 
the  fight  for  the  world's  markets  during  the  past  twenty 
years. 


472  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Competition  from  Old  Countries 

Even  the  old  countries  have  been  spurred  into  emulation 
and  are  learning  from  American  innovations  to  take  the 
good  and  leave  the  rest.  I  will  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the 
progress  achieved  by  the  older  European  countries,  and 
especially  the  great  military  powers,  is  all  the  more  alarm 
ing  for  the  United  States  because  it  has  been  accomplished 
in  spite  of  great  difficulties  and  under  the  weight  of  burdens 
which  I  need  not  detail.  The  Americans  do  not  in  the 
least  realize  the  advantage  they  possess,  as  producers,  in 
having  all  their  young  men  available  as  workers,  while 
those  in  France  and  Germany,  for  instance,  have  to  spend 
two  or  three  years  in  barracks.  What  would  it  be  if  the 
United  States  had  to  compete  with  Europe  on  equal  terms  ? 

England  is  distended  and  bursting  under  the  weight  she 
has  to  carry,  but  nevertheless  keeps  going  by  her  own 
momentum,  and  lives  like  a  prodigal.  Austria  and  Italy, 
those  two  supposed  allies,  are  exhausting  their  resources 
on  armaments  that  are  really  intended  for  use  against  each 
other,  and  yet  they  prosper,  especially  Italy,  which,  in 
spite  of  the  worst  kind  of  folly,  uses  her  genius  and  industry 
to  develop  her  agriculture  and  manufactures.  Even  Spain, 
badly  off  as  she  is,  overrun  with  abuses  and  unable  to  shake 
off  the  domination  of  her  monks,  is  managing  to  make  her 
efforts  towards  an  economic  revival  felt.  Thanks  to  their 
knowledge,  talent,  ingenuity,  art,  taste  and  intelligence, 
France  and  Germany  continue  to  sell:  Germany  her 
chemicals  and  cheap  manufactured  goods,  and  France  her 
expensive  articles.  Never  has  the  spirit  of  initiative  shown 
itself  more  daring  in  France  than  during  the  past  forty 
years,  no  matter  where  it  was  exerted  —  in  the  world  at 
large,  by  exploration  and  colonizing ;  in  the  mother  country, 
through  the  automobile  and  motors  for  agriculture ;  on  sea 
and  in  the  air,  through  submarine  and  aerial  navigation. 


COMPETITION  473 

Great  and  Small  Powers 

Let  us  turn  from  the  great  powers  and  consider  the 
others,  such  as  Hungary,  Bulgaria,  Bohemia,  Poland, 
Switzerland,  Roumania,  Finland,  Belgium,  Holland  and 
especially  Norway. 

Scandinavia 

This  last  country  struck  me  as  the  flower  of  snow-covered 
lands.  Christiania  is  on  the  sixtieth  parallel,  as  far  north 
as  Petrograd,  and  is  in  the  south  of  Norway,  which 
has  been  kept  pure  as  snow,  like  Canada,  by  snow.  Nor 
way  has  very  few  inhabitants :  a  little  over  two  millions ; 
the  whole  country  thus  having  less  than  a  single  capital, 
Paris,  considerably  less  than  New  York,  and  only  half 
the  population  of  London.  Nevertheless,  Norway  has 
embarked  upon  several  exemplary  enterprises  in  connection 
with  education,  moral  reformation,  hygiene,  benevolence, 
solidarity  and  also  transports.  The  railroad  from  Chris 
tiania  to  Bergen  is  a  great  feat,  both  materially  and  finan 
cially.  One  wonders  how  so  small  a  passenger  and  freight 
traffic  can  pay  for  such  a  costly  undertaking.  Moreover, 
these  are  lines  that  do  not  follow  the  great  current  from 
east  to  west,  or  vice  versa,  but  lead  straight  to  the  north, 
as  if  they  wanted  to  lose  themselves.  These  lines,  in  con 
junction  with  the  rivers,  canals  and  fiords,  will  create 
cold-climate  industries,  and  tap  power-producing  water 
falls  and  supplies  of  timber  and  ore,  just  as  in  Canada.  To 
quote  a  still  more  striking  fact,  the  railway  between 
Stockholm  and  Narvik,  on  which  the  Lapland  express 
runs,  is  the  most  northerly  on  the  globe,  and  reaches  the 
68th  degree.  All  these  lines  relied  on  the  great  amount  of 
emulation  and  public  spirit  possessed  by  the  country,  as 
well  as  on  the  same  spirit  of  human  energy  that  carried 
the  dauntless  Scandinavians  and  Northmen  in  their  frail 


474  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

open  barks  to  the  western  coasts  of  Europe  and  as  far 
as  America,  long  before  Columbus's  time.  The  same  spirit 
has  led  such  men  as  Nan  sen  and  Amundsen  to  the  poles 
and  Ibsen  and  Bjornson  to  the  summit  of  independent 
thought. 

Nowhere  has  man  seemed  greater  to  me  than  in  Norway, 
where  he  is  so  weak,  so  isolated,  and,  at  the  same  time,  so 
independent.  The  Americans  have  the  blood  of  all  these 
heroes  in  their  veins,  and  they  are  proud  of  it.  They  are  a 
mixture  from  all  the  most  active  countries  on  the  globe,  but 
let  them  beware  of  the  still  powerful  and  rival  sources  in 
old  Europe.  By  Norwegians  I  mean  the  Scandinavian 
nations,  which  to  my  mind  are  inseparable  and  are  now 
allies,  in  virtue  of  a  fraternal  treaty  of  neutrality.  The 
United  States  owe  much  to  the  Swedish  spirit  of  initiative 
and  Swedish  purity.  The  American  champions,  and 
especially  the  French,  know  how  Sweden  triumphed  at 
the  Olympic  games  and  how  overwhelmingly  successful 
her  riflemen  and  her  athletes  were ;  and  we  all  know  the 
high  standing  of  her  schools  and  colleges.  Many  universi 
ties  all  over  the  world  are  modeled  on  those  in  Scandinavia. 
The  atlas,  issued  by  the  Finnish  Geographical  Society, 
which  lies  before  me,  is  a  masterpiece  in  its  way  —  a  model 
that  any  one  might  be  glad  to  copy  and  that  would  be  a 
credit  to  France.  I  had  much  to  say  of  Denmark  at  the 
time  when  I  was  endeavoring  to  stimulate  our  agricultural 
industries.  This  little  country  sets  a  valuable  example, 
not  only  to  the  Old  World,  but  to  the  New.  Conquered, 
mutilated  and  ruined,  not  so  much  by  German  power  as 
by  the  natural  evolution  of  cultivation,  it  was  obliged 
to  give  up  its  wheat  fields,  which  were  no  longer  worth 
tilling.  It  could  see  overwhelming  competition  coming 
from  American  and  Russian  wheat.  Instead  of  sitting 
down  to  weep  over  its  disasters  and  give  way  to  discourage 
ment,  Denmark  set  to  work  to  take  its  revenge  and  sue- 


COMPETITION  475 

ceed  through  its  own  energy,  good  organization,  method 
and  especially  the  practice  of  free  cooperation.  We  now 
see  Denmark  with  its  wheat  fields  transformed  into  pasture 
lands  and  its  cows  producing  quantities  of  thoroughly 
inspected  pure  butter,  which  competes  with  French  butter 
in  Paris  and  holds  its  own  even  more  successfully  against 
the  Canadian  article  in  London.  Little  Denmark  has 
become  the  conqueror  in  an  economic  conflict  —  a  real 
war,  on  the  result  of  which  depends  a  people's  prosperity 
or  ruin.  Nowadays  the  prize  is  neither  for  the  strongest 
nor  the  heaviest,  and  still  less  for  the  most  brutal,  but  for 
the  most  active,  the  best  educated,  the  most  ingenious  — 
the  most  capable,  in  fact,  and  the  best  fitted  to  succeed. 
Not  only  will  the  nations  go  on  stimulating  one  another,  but 
they  are  learning,  mutually  correcting  their  mistakes,  out 
stripping  and  fighting  one  another  or  associating  their 
efforts.  In  short,  they  are  all  in  a  state  of  constant  rivalry. 
The  produce  of  the  whole  earth  is  thus  put  into  circulation, 
offered  to  competition,  and  pushed  for  sale  by  improved 
newspaper  and  other  advertising  methods,  as  well  as  by 
the  cinematograph  and  its  appeals  to  the  popular  imagina 
tion.  This  produce  is  bound  to  improve  as  time  goes  on ; 
and  the  worst  producers  will  find  themselves  left  out  in 
the  cold.  Extending  from  field  to  field,  city  to  city  and 
nation  to  nation,  this  general  emulation  will  develop 
steadily,  and  at  the  same  time,  it  will  raise  the  standard 
of  comfort  and  make  the  consumer  harder  to  please,  so  that 
real  merit  and  quality  will  reap  their  reward. 

The  progress  now  made  in  means  of  transportation 
already  tends  towards  this  end.  What  will  it  be  when 
the  barrier  once  formed  by  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  which 
stood  across  the  world's  pathway  like  the  Isthmus  of 
Suez,  has  become  a  direct  route  between  two  oceans  and 
two  civilizations,  the  East  and  the  West?  The  girdle  of 
communication  round  about  the  globe  will  then  be  fastened, 


476  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

only  two  years  hence.  Then  will  the  great  currents,  al 
ready  so  numerous  and  rapid,  combine  to  accelerate  and 
regulate  their  speed  and  provide  it  at  the  lowest  possible 
rates.  Then  will  come  the  reward,  not  only  for  American 
boldness,  but  also  for  the  disinterested  and  conscientious 
producer.  Then  will  the  struggle  among  all  the  workers 
of  the  earth  really  begin  —  a  productive  struggle  which 
will  call  for  the  fullest  possible  employment  of  implements, 
resources  and  mental  qualities.  This  conflict  will  mark  the 
beginning  of  a  new  era,  in  which  war,  or  the  conquest  of 
man,  will  no  longer  pay  and  will  be  discredited,  not  only  as 
a  bad  action,  but  as  bad  business,  a  "great  illusion"  and  a 
great  humbug.  In  that  era  the  conquest  of  nature  will  be 
man's  principal  ambition. 

Americans,  who  have  lived  at  peace,  though  in  com 
mercial  rivalry,  with  their  Canadian  neighbors,  for  a 
hundred  years,  fully  understand  all  this.  Do  they  intend 
to  reject  the  lesson  of  all  this  experience,  repudiate  their 
past,  place  themselves  on  the  same  footing  as  the  heavily 
handicapped  military  nations,  and  begin  a  fruitless  squan 
dering  of  the  men,  money,  time  and  resources  they  need  to 
meet  competition?  This  is  the  whole  question. 

Between  Two  Fires 

Fifteen  years  ago,  when  I  began  to  publish  the  investiga 
tions  of  which  the  present  work  is  only  one  of  the  conclu 
sions,  I  endeavored  to  warn  the  divided  Great  Powers  of 
Europe  against  the  coming  danger l  constituted  by  Ameri 
can  competition  with  all  the  advantages  it  possessed  against 
overworked  Europe.  Do  Americans  propose  to  give  up 
their  privilege,  cease  to  be  that  danger  and  go  over  to  the 

1  Le  ptril  prochain;  VEurope  et  ses  rivaux.  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes, 
April  i,  1896.  Concurrence  et  chomage,  nos  rivaux,  nos  charges,  notre  routine. 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  July  15,  1897. 


COMPETITION  477 

other  side,  the  one  that  runs  the  risk?  They  must  take 
one  course  or  the  other;  they  must  choose  between  the 
new  policy,  which  has  hitherto  served  them  so  well  and 
made  them  a  great  people  and  a  great  source  of  hope,  and 
the  worn-out  policies  of  Europe  and  the  ruts  on  the  path 
way  of  armed  peace. 

What  will  they  do?  Aggravate  the  evil  in  Europe  by 
taking  part  in  it,  or  save  us  by  their  example?  Will  they 
see  where  their  real  interest  lies  and  do  their  duty,  or  will 
they  miss  their  destiny  ?  This  is  the  problem  that  placed 
itself  before  me  as  I  saw  the  United  States  more  and  more 
closely.  The  solution  will  bring  the  world  either  salvation 
or  anarchy. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

AMERICA'S  DUTY 

i.  PENSIONS:  the  army  and  navy:  440  million  dollars  spent 
in  pensions.  The  professional  army.  The  militia.  The  navy. 
The  United  States  protected  by  two  oceans.  A  race  to  ruin. 
"Ships  that  are  too  big."  Progress  in  submarines,  mines  and 
torpedoes.  Expenditure.  Dissatisfaction.  Ports  for  all.  The 
true  American  navy.  The  Naval  School  at  Annapolis.  The 
danger  of  an  American  navy  and  the  policy  of  intervention.  The 
lessons  of  the  great  war  of  1914-1915.  —  2.  THE  COLONIES:  IM 
PERIALISM  AND  ITS  Vicious  CIRCLE.  The  Pacific  Ocean  an  Ameri 
can  lake  or  the  Pacific  islands  neutralized.  The  Philippines. 
Machinery  wanted.  — 3.  PANAMA:  THE  PANAMA  CANAL  REPUDI 
ATED  BY  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.  Charles  de  Lesseps  in  prison. 
Resurrection.  The  forthcoming  opening.  A  tribute  to  President 
Roosevelt  and  American  energy.  Fortifications.  Enfeeblement 
through  militarism.  Possession  or  destruction  of  the  canal. 
Preferential  tolls.  Treaty  violation.  Arbitration  suggested  and  re 
jected.  The  actual  war :  Neutrality  not  indifference.  —  4.  CUS 
TOMS  TARIFFS.  Pessimism :  Putting  tariffs  into  operation  worse 
than  tariffs  themselves.  Inadequate  justice.  Administrative  habits 
contrary  to  national  idealism.  Parliamentary  control  a  farce. 
Elected  representatives  as  slaves.  "  Pork-barrel "  legislation. 
Organization  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic.  "Patriotic" 
military  and  naval  leagues.  Electoral  reform.  Newspapers.  Cus 
toms  legislation.  Public  spirit  will  reform  the  administration. 
Reply  to  pessimists.  New  currents  of  foreign  immigration  in  the 
United  States.  —  5.  CONCLUSION  :  DISTANCE  BETWEEN  THE  UNITED 
STATES  AND  THEIR  GOVERNMENT.  Americans  are  faithful  to  the 
Mount  Vernon  traditions,  but  the  government  has  moved  away 
from  them.  Birth  of  imperialism.  The  1912  elections.  The  rights 

478 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  479 

of  man  and  the  right  of  peoples.     The  renovation  of  Europe. 
Interest  and  duty  of  the  United  States. 

WHILE  so  many  rivals  are  coming  forward  in  the  Old 
World,  and  the  New,  what  are  you,  the  young  democracy 
of  the  United  States,  doing  to  organize  your  forces  for  the 
struggle?  Is  it  true  that  you  have  adopted  some  of  our 
worst  abuses  and  have  even  gone  farther  than  ourselves 
in  this  respect?  Is  it  true  that  I  can  no  longer  quote  in 
stances  of  your  wisdom  without  being  derided  as  a  dreamer 
of  dreams?  Is  it  true  that  the  noble  ambition  to  reach  a 
higher  civilization  is  of  less  interest  to  your  leaders  than 
the  race  for  naval  and  military  supremacy?  Let  us  see 
what  the  facts  are. 


i.  Pensions.     The  Army  and  Navy 

Your  naval  and  military  expenditure,  including  pensions, 
does  not  fall  far  short  of  half  your  Federal  revenue.  It 
absorbs  more  than  two  out  of  every  five  dollars.  To  men 
alleged  to  have  fought  in  the  wars  that,  according  to  your 
own  admission,  might  have  been  averted,  and  to  the  sup 
posed  relatives  of  these  men,  you  have  paid,  in  fifty 
years,  up  to  June  30,  1911,  $4,230,000,000,  more  than 
enough  to  provide  your  country,  your  agriculture,  your 
education  and  public  works  departments  with  the  best 
services  in  the  world.  Through  the  operation  of  well- 
understood  phenomena,  this  burden,  which  ought  to  have 
melted  away  in  course  of  time,  is  increasing.  In  1911  it 
exceeded  $157,000,000.  What  would  it  be  if  the 
United  States  had  known  real  war  and  mutual  invasion  as 
we  know  them  in  Europe?  Let  us,  however,  treat  these 
sums  as  a  prodigal  son's  expenditure  or  as  debts  of  honor 
to  be  settled  without  investigation  and  let  us  see  what  you 
are  now  spending  on  your  army. 


480 


AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 


The  Professional  Army 

The  American  army  is  intended  for  various  uses.  It  has 
its  staffs,  and  its  officers,  trained  at  West  Point.  In  the 
event  of  the  country  being  attacked,  the  army  would  con 
stitute  the  basis  and  framework  of  the  national  defense. 
In  time  of  peace,  its  officers  act  as  engineers,  like  those  of 
our  own  engineer  regiments,  but,  in  reality,  they  are  civil 
engineers  and  have  done  excellent  work  in  the  United 
States,  Cuba,  Panama  and  the  colonies.  The  army  is 
also  a  police  force  which  the  law  empowers  the  President  to 
use,  up  to  its  maximum  strength  of  100,000  men.  This 
force  is  necessary,  as  we  can  see  only  too  well  on  the  Mexi 
can  frontier,  to  maintain  order  and  protect  the  lives  and 
property  of  American  citizens.  It  was  in  little  more  than 
an  embryo  condition  before  the  war  with  Spain.  It  had 
to  be  increased,  or  rather  created,  by  the  Act  of  February 
2,  1901,  to  meet  the  needs  of  colonial  expeditions.  I 
append  a  table  showing,  in  round  figures,  the  strength  of 
the  active  military  forces  of  the  United  States  on  June  30, 
1912.  It  shows  an  increase  of  12,000  men  as  compared 
with  1911,  in  which  year  the  total  was  74,000. 


REGIMENTS 

COMPANIES, 
SQUADRONS. 
BATTERIES 

STRENGTH 

Artillery 

e? 

60 

6  ooo 

Cavalry  
Infantry 

15 

2T 

1  88 
272 

15,000 

33  OOO 

Signaling  Corps    
Engineers    

OA 

I 

I 

4 

12 

I,  OOO 

2,000 

Coast  Artillery     

1  7O 

10,000 

Philippine  Scouts      

I 

12 

<,ooo 

Staff,  Transport,  Commissariat,  etc. 

5,000 

86,000 

AMERICA'S  DUTY  481 

The  foregoing  does  not  include  4000  men  of  the  hospital 
corps,  which  is  not  considered  in  America  as  belonging  to 
the  effective  strength  of  the  army. 

These  forces  are  scattered,  or  rather  lost,  all  over  the  im 
mense  territory  of  the  United  States.  A  large  proportion 
of  the  regiments  are,  or  will  be,  in  the  Philippines,  Guam, 
the  Hawaiian  islands,  Panama,  Porto  Pico,  Guantanamo, 
Alaska  and  China.  The  result  is  that  the  active  army  at 
home,  where  there  are  a  hundred  million  inhabitants,  amounts 
to  about  40,000  men,  divided  into  49  garrisons  of  700  men 
each,  or  concentrated  on  the  Mexican  frontier.  In  other 
words,  the  United  States  have  no  permanent  army  and  they 
cannot  have  one,  because  there  is  no  way  of  recruiting  it. 
Besides,  they  have  no  need  of  it  and  do  not  care  for  it ;  they 
want  something  quite  different.  The  idleness  of  camp  and 
especially  of  barrack  life  is  repugnant  to  the  American  tem 
perament.  In  the  first  part  (p.  7)  of  his  last  annual  report, 
dated  Dec.  2,  1912,  the  secretary  for  war,  Mr.  Henry  L. 
Stimson,  while  doing  full  justice  to  the  real  services  rendered 
by  the  army  when  it  works,  manages  public  undertakings 
and  contributes  to  civilian  progress  —  colonizing,  sanitation 
and  education,  deplores  the  ravages  caused  by  drink  and 
venereal  diseases  in  its  ranks.  These  ravages  are  so  great 
as  to  constitute  a  challenge  to  the  entire  effort  of  the  United 
States  towards  sanitation.  They  exceed  those  of  every 
other  country  and  those  due  to  all  other  forms  of  disease 
combined.  The  war  estimates  none  the  less  come  to 
about  $115,000,000  a  year,1  —  an  enormous  sum  for  so 
small  a  number  of  soldiers.  The  amount  is  all  the  more 
enormous  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  real  outlay, 
which  is  sure  to  increase  because  it  is  beyond  discussion,  is 

1  The  exact  amount  is  somewhat  difficult  to  determine.  The  total  mili 
tary  expenditure  for  1913-14  is  estimated  in  Mr.  Stimson's  report  at 
$172,000,000,  but  $57,000,000  must  be  deducted  for  outlay  by  the  engineer 
corps  on  civilian  public  works. 


482  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

only  partly  included  in  the  Federal  estimates  and  has  to  be 
met  out  of  the  resources  of  the  various  states  of  the  Union. 


The  Militia 

The  fact  is  that  the  real  strength  of  the  United  States 
will  lie,  not  in  a  professional  army  and  its  reserves  in  proc 
ess  of  formation,  but  in  the  organization,  which  is  still 
very  far  from  complete,  of  the  militia.  Each  state  has  to 
create  its  own,  and  each  will  try  to  produce  the  strongest 
and  best  trained.  The  strength  of  the  militia  now  organized 
and  put  through  training  camps  amounts  to  about  120,000 
young  men,  who  remain  under  the  control  of  the  state 
governors,  but,  in  time  of  war,  would  be  incorporated  in 
the  regular  army,  it  being  expressly  stipulated,  however, 
that  they  shall  not  be  called  upon  to  serve  beyond  the 
frontiers  of  the  United  States.  The  Constitution  leaves 
no  doubt  on  this  point.  These  militia  already  form  a 
striking  contrast  to  the  regular  army  as  described  by  the 
secretary.  Here  we  shall  undoubtedly  have  future  results 
of  the  American  spirit  of  emulation  and  also  that  of  co 
operation,  which  has  already  shown  what  it  can  do.  Each 
local  unit  is  designed  to  meet  two  ends.  It  fulfills  its  own 
special  duty  and  is  also  prepared  to  contribute  its  com 
pany,  battery  or  squadron  very  much  as  it  has  its  foot 
ball  or  baseball  team.  These  auxiliary  forces,  which  are 
well  officered,  well  armed  and  well  trained,  will  soon  be 
come  the  country's  real  force  —  a  national  one,  with  a  moral 
as  well  as  a  material  value.  It  is  the  outcome  of  sensible 
foresight  and  will  be  a  decidedly  more  serious  proposition 
than  a  small  number  of  mercenaries  who  propagate  infec 
tious  diseases,  as  above  mentioned,  or  a  multitude  of 
plucky  but  untrained  volunteers.  The  United  States  were 
neither  so  rich  nor  so  well  organized  a  hundred  years  ago 
when  they  repulsed  the  English. 


Let  us  therefore  treat  the  pension  scandal  as  wastefulness 
which  will  disappear  as  the  standard  of  public  morals  im 
proves,  and  the  war  estimates  as  being  principally  an  out 
lay  on  police.  These  things  are  youthful  extravagances 
and  are  still  badly  regulated,  but  the  loss  can  be  made  good. 
Let  any  among  the  European  states  who  has  not  sinned 
cast  the  first  stone  at  the  United  States.  The  expenditure 
is  already  regarded  as  heavy,  and  an  attempt  is  being  made 
to  limit  it.  Of  this  we  find  proof  in  the  moderation  of  the 
United  States  government  towards  the  anarchy  which  was 
making  Mexico  a  prey  to  fire  and  sword.  Mr.  Taft's 
administration  was  sorely  tempted,  two  years  ago,  to  in 
tervene  in  Mexico,  but  it  resisted  the  temptation  and  dis 
played  truly  exemplary  patience.  Public  opinion  was  far 
from  complaining,  but,  on  the  contrary,  encouraged  the 
government  in  its  attitude,  and  congratulated  it.  A  very 
large  amount  of  American  capital  being  invested  in  Mexico, 
it  can  readily  be  imagined  that  the  government  was 
strongly  urged  to  take  action ;  but  Mr.  Taf t  declined  to 
make  the  Texas  police  force  into  an  occupying  corps,  or  to 
use  the  United  States'  small  army,  which  is  intended  to 
protect  the  country,  for  purposes  of  invasion.  He  must 
have  remembered  the  invasion  of  Spain,  which  might  be 
described  as  a  preliminary  experiment  made  by  Napoleon  I 
for  the  edification  of  Americans.  He  also,  no  doubt, 
thought  of  Napoleon  Ill's  failure  in  Mexico. 

In  any  case,  the  United  States  have  not  committed  any 
irretrievable  mistake  in  regard  to  their  military  forces. 
The  paid  army  will  not  increase ;  and  there  are  several  very 
good  judges  among  our  officers  who  see  in  the  future  or 
ganization  of  the  American  militia  —  when  supplemented  by 
railways,  roads,  proper  communications  and  due  protection 
for  coasts  and  harbors  —  a  masterpiece  of  national  defense 
by  a  free  people.  The  United  States  army,  like  all  the 
active  forces  of  the  country,  is  in  course  of  formation.  It 


484  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

is  to  be  hoped  that  American  opinion  will  not  fall  into  the 
error  of  ceasing  to  interest  itself  in  the  question.  The 
general  staff,  whose  respected  leader  is  General  Wood,  has 
just  issued  a  complete  scheme  for  the  organization  of  the 
regular,  reserve,  militia  and  volunteer  forces.  This  scheme 
applies,  on  the  one  hand,  to  the  mother  country,  and,  on 
the  other,  to  the  colonies  and  oversea  possessions.  It 
recommends  the  constitution  of  a  partly  governmental 
and  partly  Congressional  council,  to  direct  the  national 
defenses  and  (to  mention  only  the  advantages  of  the  pro 
posal)  to  harmonize  the  usually  rather  conflicting  ten 
dencies  of  the  army  and  navy  department.  Will  Congress 
agree  to  hand  over  its  responsibility  to  a  technical  com 
mittee  ?  This  is  doubtful,  seeing  that  specialists  are  always 
consulted  in  the  United  States  but  seldom  have  a  voice  in 
management,  in  virtue  of  the  familiar  saying:  " Beware 
of  the  expert!" 

The  Navy 

It  can  be  clearly  asserted  that  the  danger  for  the  United 
States  does  not  lie  in  the  army  or  in  excessive  expenditure, 
but  rather  in  being  carried  away  by  the  consequences  of  an 
organization  which,  copied  from  that  of  the  divided  states 
of  old  Europe,  is  in  no  way  called  for  in  the  New  World. 
The  danger  is  in  trying  to  outstrip  other  countries  in  naval 
power.  I  do  not  propose  to  repeat  what  I  have  so  often 
said  on  this  point ;  but  it  is  clear  that  unless  there  is  some 
reasonable  explanation  of  the  incredible  departure  from 
good  sense  to  which  the  military  powers  of  the  Old  World 
have  given  way  in  building  so  many  battleships  (too  big  for 
their  ports  and  also  for  their  crews,  which  are  becoming  more 
and  more  difficult  to  obtain,  while  at  the  same  time  these 
vessels  are  defenseless  against  submarine  explosions  and  are 
exposed  to  attack  from  aerial  craft)  it  is  still  harder  to  under 
stand  why  the  United  States  should  have  caught  the  fever. 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  485 

Protected  by  Two  Oceans 

The  United  States  have  two  oceans  to  protect  them 
against  any  attack  and  against  all  possibility  of  the  landing 
of  a  hostile  force,  which  is  impracticable,  even  in  Europe. 
De  Tocqueville  wrote  long  ago  —  and  geography  has  not 
changed  since  his  day — as  follows:  "The  great  good  for 
tune  of  the  United  States  is  not  that  they  have  discovered 
a  Federal  constitution  which  allows  them  to  carry  on  great 
wars,  but  that  they  are  so  situated  as  to  have  no  reason  to 
apprehend  wars  for  themselves.  .  .  .  The  new  world  is  so 
well  placed  that  man  has  still  no  enemy  but  himself  in  it." 
The  United  States  are  still  better  protected  by  their  political 
federation  than  by  their  geographical  position,  and  they 
have  thus  a  duplicate  and  impregnable  stronghold  that  no 
enemy  from  afar  can  affront.  This  is  what  George  Wash 
ington  pointed  out  so  forcibly  in  his  noble  Farewell  Address 
to  his  countrymen  on  Sept.  19,  1796,  before  he  carried 
out  his  purpose  of  retiring  from  power.  For  the  benefit 
of  future  generations  he  set  forth  what  means  would  have 
to  be  taken  to  safeguard  his  work  —  the  establishment 
of  American  independence.  These  means  were,  to  his 
mind,  all  summed  up  in  one  —  the  maintenance  of  the 
union  among  the  states  and  its  protection  against  all  ad 
versaries  and  especially  against  the  adversary  from  within, 
who  might  try  to  undermine  it,  without  openly  attacking 
it,  by  constitutional  but  destructive  changes.  It  must 
be  defended,  he  held,  as  the  palladium  of  national  safety 
and  prosperity.  After  pointing  out  the  advantages  of 
this  union,  he  added :  "And,  what  is  of  inestimable  value, 
union  will  spare  you  those  quarrels  and  wars  that  prevail 
among  neighboring  and  unfederated  countries.  You  will 
thus  escape  the  necessity  of  the  constantly  increasing  mili 
tary  organizations  which,  under  all  systems  of  government, 
are  hostile  to  liberty,  and  particularly  to  republican  liberty. " 


486  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

A  Race  to  Ruin 

Public  opinion  instinctively  realizes  that  the  United 
States  enjoys  both  geographical  and  political  security,  and 
is  far  from  urging  the  government  from  endangering  this 
privileged  position  by  dangerous  precautions.  For  this 
reason  the  most  genuine  attempt  made,  while  it  was  yet 
time,  to  arrive  at  an  international  understanding  for  limit 
ing  naval  expenditure,  came  from  the  Washington  cabinet. 
The  Democrats,  now  in  office,  will  no  doubt  return  vigor 
ously  to  the  charge,  with  the  help  of  leading  Republicans  1 ; 
but,  in  the  meantime,  the  first  attempt  having  failed,  the 
Americans  have  now  developed  a  keen  interest  in  what  they 
originally  considered  bad,  and  have  embarked  on  the  new 
course  with  all  their  usual  ardor.  They  did  not  confine 
themselves  to  copying  the  English  dreadnoughts  and  super- 
dreadnoughts,  but  set  their  hearts  on  something  still  bigger. 
Ten  years  ago  we  were  told  that  the  maximum  tonnage  of 
a  battleship  would  be  14,500.  They  have  doubled  this 
figure,  and  are  now  resigning  themselves  to  giving  their  two 
newest  ships  a  displacement  of  28,500  tons ;  but,  for  battle 
ships  of  the  future,  they  are  planning  to  go  up  to  35,000-  and 
40,000- ton  vessels,  to  cost  twenty  million  dollars  or  more 

1  Secretary  of  the  Navy  Daniels,  in  his  Annual  Report  for  1913,  said: 
"I  venture  to  recommend  that  the  war  and  navy  officials  and  other  repre 
sentatives  of  all  the  nations  be  invited  to  hold  a  conference  to  discuss  whether 
they  cannot  agree  upon  a  plan  for  lessening  the  cost  of  preparation  for  war. 
It  is  recognized  that  the  desired  end  of  competitive  building,  carried  on  under 
whip  and  spur,  could  not  be  effective  without  agreement  between  great 
nations.  It  ought  not  to  be  difficult  to  secure  an  agreement  by  which  navies 
will  be  adequate  without  being  overgrown  and  without  imposing  overheavy 
taxation  upon  the  industry  of  a  nation.  I  trust  the  tentative  suggestion  for 
a  naval  holiday  by  the  strongest  of  the  powers  will  be  debated  and  the 
matter  seriously  considered  by  an  international  conference  looking  to  re 
duction  of  the  ambitious  and  costly  plans  for  navy  increase.  I  trust  that 
this  country  will  take  the  initiative  and  that  steps  will  be  taken  by  a  con 
ference  of  all  the  powers  to  discuss  reduction  of  the  heavy  cost  of  the  Army 
and  Navy." 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  487 

apiece.  In  vain  do  the  most  eminent  naval  constructors, 
headed  by  M.  Bertin,  the  " father"  of  the  Japanese  fleet, 
raise  their  voices  against  the  folly  of  building  ships  that  are 
too  large,  pointing  out  that  "a  few  inches  too  much  draught 
may  prevent  these  ships  from  gaining  shelter  or  entering  a 
passage  or  dock  for  repairs  near  the  seat  of  action"  ;  prov 
ing  that  the  most  experienced  commanders  can  neither 
maneuver  them  nor  even  save  them  in  case  of  serious  danger 
(for  instance,  that  fine  English  battleship,  the  Victoria,  sunk 
with  all  hands  by  her  neighbor,  the  Camperdown,  during 
squadron  maneuvers  in  the  Mediterranean),  and  without 
mentioning  the  too  frequent  catastrophes  which,  in  time  of 
peace  and  in  the  space  of  a  few  seconds,  destroyed  the  Maine, 
the  lena,  the  Liberte  and  many  more ;  and  proving  that 
absolutely  nothing  gives  them  any  protection  against  tor 
pedoes  and  submarine  mines,  the  use  of  which  in  warfare 
has  been  greatly  developed. 

Submarines,  Mines  and  Torpedoes 

Of  this  there  is  an  instance  in  the  Russo-Japanese  war 
itself,  although  at  that  time  these  developments  still  belonged 
to  the  future.  The  Petropavlovsk,  with  Admiral  Makaroff 
on  board,  was  sunk  in  harbor  at  Port  Arthur,  and  I  need 
only  mention  the  Pobienda  which  was  badly  damaged,  the 
Yashima  and  the  Hatsuse.  One  could  draw  up  a  long  list  of 
armored  vessels  destroyed  or  disabled  by  explosions  in  time 
of  war  and  of  peace.  In  vain  does  Commander  Murray 
Sueter  write :  "  If  a  single  torpedo  or  a  single  mine  explodes 
only  in  proximity  to  a  vessel,  however  heavily  armored,  that 
vessel  will  be  disabled,  ...  of  what  use,  in  this  event, 
can  its  guns  and  thick  armor  plating  be  ?  The  only  effect 
of  the  extra  weight  will  be  to  make  the  ship  go  down  sooner." 
In  vain  is  the  knowledge  that  battleships  in  time  of  war  will 
be  reduced  to  playing  the  part  of  targets,  and  often  rendered 


488  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

blind  and  helpless  by  darkness,  fog  and  bad  weather,  now 
that  "the  range  of  the  torpedo  is  equaling  or  exceeding 
that  of  effective  artillery  fire."  In  vain  does  M.  Bertin 
conclude  his  warnings  by  this  picture:  "A  squadron  of 
twelve  battleships  in  single  file  provides  the  torpedo  with 
a  target  four  miles  long,  in  which  the  chances  of  making  a 
hit  or  a  miss  are  about  equal." 

"Ships  that  are  too  big" 

The  Americans  are  carried  away  by  a  mistaken  spirit  of 
emulation  and  are  making  it  a  point  of  honor  to  build  these 
moving  four-mile  targets,  manned  by  ten  thousand  young 
fellows  and  costing  two  hundred  million  dollars.  They 
are  spending  money  freely  on  these  targets.  Their  annual 
naval  estimates  exceed  one  hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars, 
the  exact  figure  for  1913-1914  being  $154,801,377.  They  re 
main  deaf  even  to  the  appeals  made  by  their  own  admirals, 
who  are  alarmed  by  the  insecurity  of  these  battleships  in 
peace  as  well  as  in  war,  and  are  still  more  alarmed  by  the 
responsibility  of  commanding  such  vessels  —  an  undertak 
ing  that  is  beyond  human  powers  and  even  beyond  pos 
sibility.  Their  late  eminent  adviser,  Admiral  Mahan,  con 
stantly  uttered  his  warning  cry :  "Where  is  this  to  stop?" 
Even  the  Germans,  realizing  that  a  naval  victory  would  do 
them  no  good  and  that  the  danger  with  which  they  are 
threatened  is  on  their  inland  frontier,  have  at  one  time 
decided  to  limit  their  shipbuilding  programs  and  concen 
trate  their  efforts  on  the  army,  as  I  have  in  vain  implored 
the  French  government  and  parliament  to  do.  The 
United  States  have  started  off  headlong  and  take  no  heed 
of  these  symptoms.  They  are  still  building  and  still  spend 
ing  money ;  but  this  expenditure  and  financial  loss  count 
for  little,  I  repeat,  in  the  grounds  of  apprehension  I  enter 
tain  for  the  future.  What  is  really  alarming  is  that  they 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  489 

are  being  blindly  carried  away  to  take  risks  or  possibly  to 
meet  disaster  by  this  demoralizing  race  for  supremacy. 


Expenditure.     Dissatisfaction 

It  certainly  is  demoralizing.  Far  from  painting  the 
picture  in  too  dark  colors,  I  am  toning  down  the  senti 
ments  of  revolt  and  the  charges  that  were  spontaneously 
made,  in  my  hearing,  as  I  came  into  more  and  more  direct 
contact  with  the  people.  I  am  not  referring  to  the  claims 
made  by  interested  parties  or  to  the  oft-repeated  assertions 
that  the  government  was  starving  education  to  keep  its 
dreadnoughts  afloat,  or  to  the  contrasts  drawn  between  its 
refusal  to  provide  funds  for  roads,  canals,  forests,  flood 
prevention,  education,  hygiene,  etc.,  and  its  readiness  to 
spend  thousands  of  millions  on  an  apparently  powerful 
navy.  I  will  merely  cite  one  fact  that  occurs  to  me. 


Ports  for  All 

It  was  in  New  York  on  May  22,  1911.  Mr.  Meyer,  the 
secretary  of  the  navy,  and  myself  were  guests  of  that 
influential  body,  the  Economic  Club,  at  its  great  annual 
dinner,  attended  by  more  than  six  hundred  people.  This 
dinner  was  a  prelude  to  several  speeches,  including  the 
secretary's  and  my  own.  I  was  greatly  surprised  to  hear 
him  reecho  the  criticisms  I  have  everywhere  heard  directed 
against  what  M.  Raymond  Poincare  once  called  leaks  in 
the  navy  department  —  an  expression  which  has  unfor 
tunately  remained  merely  platonic.  In  his  speech,  which 
was  fully  reported  next  morning  in  all  the  newspapers,  Mr. 
Meyer  said,  in  substance:  "I  have  pointed  out  that  quite 
a  number  of  our  ports  and  arsenals  are  useless,  but  in  vain. 
I  have  asked  for  the  abolition  of  the  navy  yards  at  New 


4QO  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Orleans,  Pensacola,  Port  Royal,  New  London,  San  Juan, 
Culebra,  Cavite  and  others  that  are  a  drain  upon  our  re 
sources  without  being  of  any  use  for  defensive  purposes ; 
but  these  yards  are  still  in  existence."  All  this  is  per 
fectly  well  known  in  the  United  States,  where  four  large 
ports  —  two  on  each  ocean  —  would  be  sufficient  to  shelter 
all  the  American  fleets :  Narragansett  and  Norfolk  on  the 
Atlantic,  Bremerton  and  Hunter  Point  on  the  Pacific. 
"  Local  interests  take  no  account  of  these  facts,  and  fight 
to  have  their  own  yard  or  help  their  friends  to  have  one. 
A  navy  is  being  built  so  as  to  have  yards !  They  are  even 
being  built  in  the  colonies.  The  one  at  Cavite,  in  the 
Philippines,  cost  over  ten  million  dollars  and  is  useless, 
there  being  no  bottom  for  anchorage."  I  did  not  fail  to 
mention  all  these  expressions  of  dissatisfaction  in  my  speech, 
and  never  was  I  more  heartily  applauded.  I  asked  whether 
the  people  of  the  Middle  West  would  feel  inclined  to  go  on 
paying  so  heavily,  only  to  be  told  afterwards  that  it  was  all 
for  nothing,  and  to  find  it  admitted  that  the  money  had  been 
used  either  for  building  naval  ports  for  cities  that  did  not 
need  them,  or  on  the  other  hand,  for  pensions  for  widows 
or  relatives  of  widows  whose  husbands  were  never  either 
soldiers  or  sailors. 


America's  Great  Navy 

The  moral  effect  will  have  more  effect  than  the  monetary 
outlay  on  the  opinion  of  Americans.  They  will  be  more  or 
less  ready  to  pay  the  bill,  one  hundred  and  fifty-four  million 
dollars  a  year  and  more !  They  will  make  up  their  minds 
to  see  many  of  the  best  class  of  their  young  men  absorbed  by 
the  navy  —  46,000,  just  as  they  have  to  do  without  the 
86,000 who  enlist  in  the  army,  this  making  a  total  of  132,000 
men  whose  services  are  lost  to  the  country.  They  will 
look  less  philosophically,  and  with  a  certain  amount  of 


uneasiness,  on  the  creation,  in  the  American  democracy, 
of  a  new  class  —  a  naval  and  military  caste,  having  its 
center  of  action  in  Washington  and  not  at  all  inclined  to 
let  itself  be  deprived  of  its  privileged  position.  They  will 
say,  and  they  are  already  saying:  "To  what  will  all  this 
lead?"  There  can  be  no  mistake  on  this  point.  It  is  no 
question  of  "flabbiness"  or  humanitarian  objections,  or 
even  of  the  dislike  of  those  interested  in  commerce  and 
agriculture  to  sacrificing  their  future  for  the  sake  of  pre 
paring  for  an  objectless  war.  It  is,  on  the  other  hand,  an 
essentially  patriotic  and  positive  movement.  Americans 
want  a  navy,  just  as  they  want  an  army,  but  it  must  be 
of  the  kind  suitable  to  their  requirements,  and  not  a  servile 
copy  of  European  navies.  They  want  submarines,  mines 
and  torpedoes  to  protect  their  coasts  and,  for  deep  water, 
ships  that  can  go  anywhere,  instead  of  floating  dungeons. 
They  want  a  navy  that  serves  a  definite  purpose,  acquires 
and  imparts  knowledge,  explores,  polices  the  seas  and  acts 
as  the  advance  guard  of  scientific  and  commercial  progress. 
They  want  small  and  fast  vessels  to  show  the  flag  in  all  the 
world's  ports,  but  they  make  a  distinction  between  these 
small  vessels,  which  are  signs  of  life  and  health,  and  showy 
squadrons  of  big  ships  that  are  costly  and  dangerous  to 
send  even  on  short  cruises.  They  now  have  three  fleets, 
the  Atlantic,  Pacific  and  Asiatic,  without  counting  those 
that  will  be  formed  for  the  benefit  of  Central  America. 
What  need  is  there  to  send  fleets  on  these  voyages?  A 
visit  paid  by  one  or  two  American  warships  to  a  foreign 
country  is  a  friendly  and  polite  act ;  a  demonstration  made 
by  a  squadron  is  a  kind  of  pretension,  if  not  a  more  or  less 
disguised  threat.  The  one  is  the  open,  outstretched  hand ; 
the  other  is  the  closed  fist.  An  American  admiral,  if  left 
by  any  chance  to  his  own  devices,  might  be  sorely  tempted 
to  act. 


4Q2  AMERICA  AND  HER  PROBLEMS 

Annapolis 

However  good  may  be  the  class  of  men  now  in  the  Ameri 
can  navy,  and  however  excellent  may  be  the  magnificent 
naval  school  at  Annapolis,1  the  national  temperament 
must  be  taken  into  account.  That  great  admiral,  John  Paul 
Jones,  soon  after  the  War  of  Independence,  when  the  main 
tenance  of  peace  was  his  first  duty,  did  not  hesitate  to  sail 
into  the  Mediterranean,  go  as  far  as  Tripoli  and  give  the 
signal  for  an  attack  on  the  barbarian  corsairs  who  were 
more  or  less  supported  by  the  English  against  the  French. 

The  Navy  and  the  Policy  of  Intervention 

This  is  not  a  romance,  but  a  little-known  chapter  in  the 
early  history  of  the  United  States.  That  brave  commander, 
Admiral  Dewey,  talked  very  haughtily  to  the  captain  of  a 
German  battleship  on  a  certain  occasion  in  the  Spanish- 
American  war;  and  what  would  have  happened  had  the 
German  officer  replied  in  the  same  strain  ?  People  are  apt 
to  forget  that  the  tone  of  the  American  Press,  only  twelve 
or  fifteen  years  ago,  was  very  violent.  It  was  aggressive 
towards  every  one,  and  especially  France,  which  was  ac 
cused  of  favoring  Spain  and  allowing  American  citizens 
to  be  insulted  in  the  center  of  Paris !  To  command  an 
American  squadron  abroad,  during  a  period  of  national 
excitement,  would  be  a  very  trying  experience  for  an 

1  This  naval  college  is  magnificent,  not  only  in  regard  to  the  monetary 
but  to  the  personal  effort  involved  in  its  maintenance.  There  are  few 
enterprises  that  do  Americans  more  honor,  and  give  better  proof  of  their 
determination  in  the  face  of  the  most  adverse  circumstances  than  the 
manner  in  which  they  have  organized  their  youthful  navy.  Thanks  to  this 
effort,  which  is  even  more  of  the  moral  than  the  material  order,  the  Ameri 
can  officers  have  succeeded  in  making  a  complete  change  in  their  crews 
which,  instead  of  being  made  up  of  any  kind  of  men  who  offered  themselves 
at  the  ports  used  by  the  ships,  are  now  carefully  selected  in  the  inland 
states.  Twenty  years  ago,  these  crews  were  formed  "anyhow"  and  included 
90  per  cent  of  foreigners.  This  proportion  is  now  entirely  reversed  and 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  493 

American  admiral,  especially  as  he  would  most  probably  be 
unable  to  speak  any  foreign  language,  and  be  thrown  upon 
his  own  resources,  so  that,  however  anxious  he  might  be 
to  do  the  right  thing,  he  might  act  under  misconceptions, 
which  would  be  greatly  increased  by  his  ignorance  of  foreign 
customs  and  ideas.  If  he  should  begin  to  take  an  exalted 
view  of  his  task  and  to  give  way  to  excitement,  the  honor 
of  the  flag  and  the  national  prestige  would  become  involved. 
This  danger  is  not  imaginary.  It  exists  in  the  case  of  a 
European  admiral,  whose  training,  based  on  centuries  of 
experience,  has  impressed  upon  him  the  necessity  of  re 
specting  other  people's  feelings ;  but  it  will  be  greater  for  an 
American  sea  dog,  who  may  be  an  excellent  admiral  without 
knowing  much  about  social  and  diplomatic  usages.  I 
constantly  hear  Americans  complain  very  strongly  —  to 
my  mind,  too  strongly,  this  being  a  youthful  defect  —  of 
their  countrymen's  bad  manners.  It  is  one  thing  to  talk 
about  the  bad  manners  of  a  young  man  who  walks  on  ladies' 
dresses,  for  instance;  but  "bad  manners"  on  the  part  of 
a  battleship  are  a  much  more  serious  matter.  To  begin 
with,  they  are  a  business  calamity;  as  was  shown  when 
Italian  men-of-war  fired  blank  shots  at  two  of  our  mail 
steamers,  the  Carthage  and  the  Manouba.  We  have  not 
forgotten  the  search  made  on  board  these  vessels,  their 

shows  from  95  to  97  per  cent  of  Americans,  the  rest  being  made  up,  not  of 
ordinary  foreigners,  who  are  no  longer  accepted  at  all,  but  of  those  who 
have  already  served  and  have  signed  again.  Everything  possible  is 
done  to  make  life  pleasant  and  healthy  for  the  men  during  their  four  years' 
service,  to  protect  them  from  the  contagious  diseases  with  which  the  army 
is  afflicted,  and  to  stimulate  rivalry  between  man  and  man  and  between 
ship  and  ship,  not  only  in  their  training  at  sea  and  ashore,  but  in  the  sports 
organized  for  them.  Their  officers  are  accustomed  to  rely  more  on  personal 
authority  than  on  rank  for  the  maintenance  of  discipline.  They  take  the 
utmost  care  to  keep  their  men  physically  and  morally  healthy,  and  they  are 
the  first  to  profit  by  the  education  they  are  intrusted  to  impart.  The 
progress  made  by  the  American  navy  deserves  to  be  made  known  by  some 
exhaustive  work,  which  would  confirm  all  that  I  have  myself  ascertained  in 
regard  to  the  resources  of  the  United  States. 


494  AMERICA    AND    HER    PROBLEMS 

temporary  confiscation,  the  irritation  caused  in  France  and 
the  sensational  parliamentary  debates.  Had  M.  Poincare's 
government  shown  less  self-control,  Italy  would  have  had 
to  fight  not  only  Turkey,  but  one  or  more  European  powers 
as  well.  England  gave  a  still  more  remarkable  proof  of 
moderation  at  the  time  of  the  Doggerbank  affair.  The 
blood  that  had  been  spilled  cried  out  for  vengeance ;  the  whole 
English  nation  was  up  in  arms ;  the  British  fleet  was  in  good 
training,  ready  to  act  and  sure  of  success.  Only  wisdom 
held  it  back.  Can  we  feel  quite  sure  that,  under  similar 
circumstances,  American  public  opinion  would  have  with 
stood  the  temptation  ?  We  know  how  completely  it  yielded 
in  1898 ! 

Americans  have  nothing  to  fear  from  their  army,  which 
is  too  widely  scattered  to  be  under  the  influence  of  any 
"savior  of  his  country,"  but  one  cannot  say  as  much  of 
their  navy,  excellent  as  it  is.  Its  fine  qualities  only  increase 
the  danger,  because  it  is  designed  for  naval  engagements, 
because  it  is  useless  for  purposes  of  defense  and  is  meant 
for  attack :  to  carry  war  into  the  enemy's  country  and  not 
to  repel  it.  The  American  navy  is  the  inevitable  outcome 
of  the  mistakes  apprehended  by  Washington  and  of  a  policy 
which  has  gradually  lost  sight  of  its  origin  and  has  become  a 
policy  of  intervention,  diametrically  opposed  not  only  to  the 
interests  but  to  the  traditions  of  the  United  States.  A 
powerful  American  navy  cannot  remain  in  idleness.  Con 
tinual  waiting  for  a  war  that  always  has  to  be  avoided  will 
end  by  making  it  lose  all  patience.  It  will  not  endure  an 
unnatural  state  of  existence  which  is  more  objectionable 
than  anything  to  the  American  temperament.  It  cannot 
be  placed  on  the  same  footing  as  the  navy  of  an  older 
country.  What  happens  to  the  navies  of  younger  coun 
tries  at  critical  times?  Have  we  forgotten  how  some  of 
the  Russian  warships,  after  Tsushima  and  Mukden,  cruised 
about  the  Black  Sea  spreading  terror  far  and  wide,  and  the 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  495 

Brazilian  battleships  that  fired  their  first  shots  against  the 
forts  at  Rio  de  Janeiro  ?  All  this  is  not  the  result  of  mere 
chance,  but  of  paralyzing  activity  that  is  eager  to  expend  it 
self.  I  cannot  be  expected  to  admire  the  United  States  and 
believe  in  their  future  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  shut  my 
eyes  to  what  may  be  fatal  mistakes  on  the  part  of  their 
government.  I  cannot  see  how  American  dreadnoughts 
can  serve  the  cause  of  progress,  but  I  see  only  too  well  how 
much  harm  they  can  do,  and  the  complications  and  dis 
asters  they  can  bring  about,  with  the  help  of  the  yellow 
Press,  against  the  will  of  the  American  people. 

The  Lesson  of  the  Present  War 

March,  1915.  —  It  is  impossible  to  avoid  deriving  new 
arguments  from  the  present  war.  Admiral  Sir  Percy 
Scott's  campaign  in  England  against  large  navies  no  longer 
meets  with  any  opposition  worthy  of  the  name. 

What  has  taken  place  during  the  first  eight  months  of 
the  war  has  a  signification  deserving  of  careful  attention. 
Big  battleships  have  been  of  no  use,  either  to  England, 
France  or  Germany,  and  still  less  to  Russia.  Not  a  single 
great  naval  battle  that  could  demonstrate  the  usefulness 
of  big  navies  has  been  fought.  Only  one  superdread- 
nought  has  done  anything  —  the  British  ship  Queen 
Elizabeth,  which  bombarded  the  Dardanelles  forts  at 
long  range,  while  the  smaller  battleships  shelled  them  from 
a  shorter  distance.  Will  this  operation  prove  sufficient 
to  reestablish  the  theory  that  great  navies  are  necessary? 
I  hardly  think  so.  The  jingo  Press  of  all  the  leading  nations 
has  not  failed  to  exaggerate  and  misrepresent  what  the  big 
ships  have  done.  The  fact  is  that  only  the  fast  cruisers 
and  submarines  —  small  naval  units,  in  fact  —  have  proved 
their  usefulness.  Very  fast  German  cruisers,  such  as  the 
Emden,  the  Goeben  and  the  Breslau,  were  able  to  defy  the 


496  AMERICA    AND   HER    PROBLEMS 

British  and  French  squadrons.  The  Emden  did  not  fall  a 
prey  to  any  big  battleship.  These  vessels,  with  few  ex 
ceptions,  remained  in  the  neighborhood  of  England.  As 
for  the  German  battleships,  they  can  hardly  be  said  to 
have  left  port.  When  the  Germans  attempted  to  do  some 
thing  definite  in  the  North  Sea,  the  result  of  the  engage 
ment  and  the  sinking  of  the  Blilcher  were  due  to  the  daring 
of  the  British  sailors  and  the  number  of  their  scouts  rather 
than  to  the  size  of  their  ships  and  the  range  of  their  guns. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  British  and  German  battleship  fleets 
have  simply  counterbalanced  each  other  and  have  therefore 
added  nothing  to  the  strength  of  their  respective  countries. 

If  Germany,  instead  of  spending  so  many  thousands  of 
millions  on  dreadnoughts,  had  set  some  of  this  money 
aside  for  submarines  and  had  possessed  400  of  the  latter 
(so  as  to  have  100  always  available)  instead  of  40,  she 
would  have  had  a  complete  mastery  of  the  North  Sea  and 
the  Channel. 

In  the  Mediterranean,  the  French  fleet  has  been  used  to 
paralyze  the  Austrian,  and  here  again  the  one  simply  coun 
terbalanced  the  other. 

If  Austria  had  had  more  submarines,  the  French  super- 
dreadnoughts  would  have  been  useless.  Even  one  Austrian 
submarine  was  sufficient  to  place  our  latest  and  most  power 
ful  battleship,  the  Jean  Bart,  the  flagship,  out  of  action. 

It  must  not  be  inferred  from  these  remarks  that  I  regard 
the  French  navy  as  having  proved  useless.  On  the  con 
trary,  it  has  not  only  neutralized  the  Austrian  fleet  but,  in 
conjunction  with  the  British  and  Japanese  navies,  it  has 
helped  to  convoy  our  transports  in  the  Mediterranean, 
on  the  west  coast  of  Africa  and  in  the  Far  East.  In  this 
way  it  certainly  rendered  valuable  services,  which  were, 
however,  due  to  the  joint  action  of  the  allied  navies  and 
their  fast  and  medium  cruisers,  and  not  to  the  size  of  their 
big  ships. 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  497 

If  Germany  and  Austria,  instead  of  wasting  such  vast 
sums  on  big  battleships,  had  built  more  Emdens,  Goebens 
and  Breslaus,  our  transports  would  have  been  constantly 
in  danger.  The  German  navy  did  not  save  Kiao-chao,  and 
the  Russian  navy  was  vanquished  at  Tsushima,  showing 
that  great  navies  are  powerless  to  defend  distant  colonies. 

The  operations  in  the  Dardanelles,  in  my  opinion,  will 
do  nothing  to  restore  the  reputation  of  battleships.  No 
one  ever  suggested  that  a  superdreadnought  was  worth 
nothing.  The  point  is  to  know  whether  they  are  worth 
what  they  cost.  The  Dardanelles  and  the  Bosporus 
have  never  been  fortified  like  the  coasts  of  a  great  civilized 
power.  They  are  semi-barbarian  coasts,  despite  the  efforts 
put  forward  during  the  last  few  years  by  all  the  great  metal 
industries  to  induce  the  Ottoman  government  to  defend 
the  straits  with  big  modern  guns  and  steel  cupolas.  There 
can  be  no  comparison  between  the  resistance  of  the  Dar 
danelles  forts  and  those  of  a  well-organized  state.  The 
situation  would  have  been  quite  different  if  Turkey  had 
been  sufficiently  intelligent  to  provide  herself  with  sub 
marines  and  complete  modern  defenses.  They  would  have 
been  impregnable  had  Turkey  taken  proper  steps  to  protect 
them  instead  of  buying  out-of-date  battleships  from  Ger 
many  and  new  ones  from  Brazil ;  and  Russia  would  not 
have  been  free  to  send  her  fleet  to  bombard  the  entrance  to 
the  Bosporus. 

The  greater  the  number  of  unexpected  proofs  supplied 
by  events,  the  more  reason  there  is  for  the  United  States 
to  draw  the  conclusion  that  a  great  navy  can  only  be  a  cause 
of  weakness  and  a  danger  for  them. 

2.   The  Colonies.     Imperialism  and  its  Vicious  Circle 

To  these  objections  the  admirals  and  generals  reply 
that  they  have  colonies  to  protect.  Quite  so;  and  here 

2K 


498  AMERICA   AND   HER    PROBLEMS 

we  are  in  the  middle  of  the  vicious  circle  of  an  embryo  im 
perialism.  The  need  for  a  great  navy  to  defend  their  new 
possessions  began  to  be  invoked  by  Americans  from  the 
time  when  they  repudiated  their  own  Monroe  Doctrine 
and  went  outside  their  own  continent  to  carry  into  other 
countries  the  policy  of  intervention  they  had  shut  out  of 
their  own.  Having  driven  the  Spaniards  out  of  America, 
they  established  a  footing  for  themselves  in  Asia,  and,  from 
the  perpetration  of  this  first  mistake,  date  their  assertions 
of  the  need  for  a  more  powerful  navy  to  defend  their  new 
possessions.  This  pretext  has  now  become  valueless. 

Pacific  Ocean  an  American  Lake? 

No  great  power,  not  even  England,  can  have  enough  fleets 
to  go  to  the  rescue  of  her  colonies,  dominate  maritime 
commerce  and  secure  the  empire  of  every  sea.  I  have 
often  explained  my  views  on  this  subject.  Not  by  their 
fleets,  but  by  peace  can  the  United  States  or  France  keep 
their  colonies.  General  Wood  proved  this  in  Cuba,  al 
though  he  nourished  strange  delusions  as  to  the  usefulness 
of  battleships.  The  real  conquest  he  made  was  that -of  the 
natives'  confidence.  He  gained  sway  over  minds  and  not 
bodies.  This  is  the  only  form  of  conquest  that  does  not 
bring  reprisals  in  its  train.  Moreover,  who  would  venture 
to  attack  Cuba,  with  or  without  the  port  of  Guantanamo, 
after  the  risky  experiment  made  by  the  United  States 
against  Spain,  which  was  scarcely  able  to  defend  itself? 
What  could  any  one  do,  in  the  military  sense,  with  that 
island,  which  is  magnificent  but  impenetrable  for  the 
Americans  themselves  and  still  more  so  for  any  more  distant 
invader?  Why  not  defend  Porto  Rico,  too?  Is  there  any 
fear  for  the  safety  of  the  Hawaiian  islands?  They  are  al 
ready  invaded  by  Japanese  immigrants.  This  apple  of 
discord  cannot  be  removed  by  force,  which  would  rather 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  499 

make  it  a  source  of  danger.  The  naval  and  military 
station  in  Oahu,  Pearl  Harbor,  now  held  by  4000  Amer 
ican  troops  as  a  beginning,  is  a  shelter  for  battleships  and, 
in  reality,  the  temptation  for  a  great  and  unnecessary  naval 
action. 

It  is  a  pretext  for  neglecting  the  defense  of  the  United 
States  coast  and  leaving  it  to  the  fleet.  Islands  are  a 
difficult  question,  in  the  Pacific  as  well  as  in  the  ^Egean  Sea. 
The  Pacific  is  dotted  all  over  with  archipelagos,  belonging 
to  the  Americans,  Japanese,  English,  Germans,  Dutch, 
French  and  Spaniards,  which  might  be  protected  against 
the  risk  of  attack.  All  these  islands,  from  the  Galapagos 
to  New  Guinea,  from  the  Aleutians  to  the  Carolines  and 
Mariannes,  ought  to  be  made  the  subject  of  a  general  agree 
ment,  in  which  the  United  States  should  take  the  initiative, 
so  as  to  provide  against  their  being  fortified  or  militarized. 
Wisdom  lies  in  this  and  not  in  the  senseless  scheme  of 
making  the  Pacific  into  another  Mediterranean  —  "an 
American  lake ! " 


The  Philippines.     Machinery  Wanted 

The  Philippines  are  supplying  the  real  pretext  for  de 
veloping  the  American  navy  until  Panama  provides  another. 
The  effect  was  bound  to  follow  the  cause.  The  Americans 
took  the  Philippines,  thousands  of  miles  away  from  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama,  because  they  had  a  few  battleships, 
and  now  they  are  adding  to  their  fleets  so  as  to  defend  the 
Philippines.  They  have  spread  out  into  Asia  although  their 
own  territories,  from  Florida  to  Alaska,  are  already  too 
large  and  too  thinly  populated.  They  have  made  them 
selves  vulnerable  although  they  had  the  almost  unique 
privilege  of  invulnerability.  They  are  making  up  for  their 
mistake  by  the  merits  of  their  organization  in  the  Philip 
pines,  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  and  by  contributing  to  civil- 


500  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

ization.  Their  officers  and  naval  and  military  engineers 
have  done  remarkable  work  in  the  Philippines  during  the 
last  ten  years.  There  is  progress  in  hygiene,  native  educa 
tion,  public  works,  agriculture  and  the  moral  and  material 
uplifting  of  a  country  given  over  for  centuries  to  unlimited 
oppression.  Nothing  has  been  neglected,  and  the  country 
and  its  inhabitants  are  certainly  gainers  by  the  American 
protectorate.  Theodore  Marburg's  theory  as  to  the  higher 
duty  of  interference  on  behalf  of  backward  nations  is  plaus 
ible  enough,  so  long  as  it  is  not  carried  to  excess  and  if  we 
know  how  to  manage  it  so  that  the  intervention  really  bene 
fits  every  one  and  not  one  state  exclusively.  In  any  case, 
the  fait  accompli  ought  not  to  carry  Americans  further  on 
this  course.  It  is  clear  that  they  cannot  abandon  the  Philip 
pines,  after  having  assumed  so  heavy  a  burden  with  a  light 
heart,  without  creating  new  and  innumerable  moral,  polit 
ical,  economic  and  military  responsibilities ;  but  the  better 
I  see  the  danger  of  this  unlimited  colonization,  the  more  I 
hope,  in  the  interest  of  the  world  at  large,  that  the  American 
government  will  manage  to  establish  some  system  honor 
able  to  itself  and  acceptable  to  all,  whereby  the  Philippines 
will  be  enabled  to  continue  their  development  with  the 
benefit  of  neutrality.  The  necessary  kind  of  machine 
remains  to  be  found,  but  Americans  have  put  many  others 
together.  If  all  the  questions  involved  are  thoroughly 
considered,  and  if  officials  worthy  of  such  a  mission  are 
selected,  neutrality  can  be  organized  in  the  Philippines  so 
that  order  and  progress  will  go  on  automatically  to  the 
honor  of  the  United  States  and  without  making  any  direct 
call  on  their  army  and  navy.  For  a  young  nation  that 
cannot  squander  its  strength,  this  is  a  vital  question,  and 
every  day  that  elapses  before  it  is  settled  is  a  source  of 
danger.  Americans  recognize  this,  for  other  food  for 
thought  has  been  given  them,  and  their  attention  is  now 
absorbed  by  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 


Bravo !  They  are  finishing  what  France  began ;  they 
are  taking  up  and  completing,  as  in  other  instances,  the 
work  that  was  undertaken  by  her  energetic  pioneers  and 
thrust  aside  by  her  incorrigibly  feeble  governments. 

3.   Panama.     French  Repudiation 

What  Louis  XV  and  Napoleon  I  did  in  the  New  World 
was  to  abandon  and  sell  Canada  and  Louisiana.  Na 
poleon  III,  on  the  other  hand,  tried  to  make  Mexico  submit 
to  force  of  arms.  The  republic,  though  meaning  well,  did 
what  was  perhaps  worse  still.  Under  the  pretext  of  pun 
ishing  certain  guilty  parties,  who  certainly  deserved  it, 
she  withdrew,  repudiated  the  Panama  Canal,  condemned 
its  promoters  and,  in  so  doing,  condemned  herself.  The 
most  difficult  part  of  the  undertaking  was  done,  the  route 
was  selected,  the  plans  were  drawn  up  and  the  worst  part 
of  the  work  was  in  progress.  There  was  nothing  more  to  do 
than  to  carry  it  on.  Thousands  of  ardent  lives  had  been 
sacrificed,  and  the  canal  may  be  said  to  be  bordered  by  the 
graves  of  our  men. 

Charles  de  Lesseps  in  Prison 

The  man  of  genius,  who  "  separated  continents  but 
united  nations,"  who  enriched  the  whole  world  by 
cutting  through  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  and  who  alone, 
after  this  first  success,  was  able  to  conceive  the  Panama 
Canal,  ended  his  life  a  broken  man.  He  would  have 
spent  his  last  days  in  prison  but  for  his  heroic  son,  who 
went  there  in  his  place,  after  having  taken  the  whole  burden 
of  injustice  on  his  own  shoulders.  He  died  stabbed  in  the 
back,  the  victim  of  mistakes  which  it  would  be  difficult 
to  avoid  in  a  colossal  enterprise.  It  was  thought  better 
to  treat  these  mistakes  as  a  crime  than  to  help  him  make 


5O2  AMERICA   AND    HER   PROBLEMS 

up  for  them.  Not  the  slightest  trace  of  any  guilty  intention 
on  his  part  was  discovered  in  the  sordid  charges  that  were 
made  against  him  and  utilized  with  ferocious  joy  by  the 
republic's  enemies.  Loubet,  Burdeau  and  other  members 
of  the  government,  who  tried  to  defend  him,  were  vilified 
and  betrayed.  A  minister  of  justice,  who  was  nothing 
more  than  a  smooth-tongued  and  personally  vain  dema 
gogue,  saw  an  opportunity  for  personal  aggrandizement 
in  this  shipwreck  of  a  national  enterprise.  He  took  upon 
himself  to  act  as  public  accuser  and  to  let  loose  every  kind 
of  coward  against  the  man  whom  people  had  become  tired 
of  calling  the  "  Great  Frenchman."  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps 
has  joined  those  great  servants  and  benefactors  of  human 
ity  who  were  so  often  our  national  victims.  The  men 
who  were  afraid  of  compromising  themselves  by  supporting 
him  were  indeed  successful.  History  will  not  even  record 
their  names,  but  will  classify  them  all  under  one  label  — 
panic. 

Resurrection 

Fortunately,  the  work  has  outlived  the  man ;  all  honor 
to  those  who  saved  it.  A  few  years  hence,  when  the  receipts 
from  Panama  Canal  tolls  are  greater  than  those  of  the  Suez 
Canal,  when  ships  go  straight  from  Brest  to  Shanghai,  when 
the  whole  world's  output  is  stimulated  by  the  constant  going 
and  coming  of  the  earth's  merchant  fleets,  our  children  will 
learn  what  their  fathers'  weakness  cost  them.  They  will 
also  be  told  about  the  great  and  perennial  excuse  —  the 
antagonism  between  France  and  Germany.  When  Fer 
dinand  de  Lesseps,  in  the  interest  of  the  Panama  Canal, 
resumed  the  series  of  public  lectures  which  had  enabled  him 
to  carry  out  his  former  enterprise,  he  did  not  forget  Ger 
many.  He  was  well  received  at  Cologne,  and  he  went  to 
Berlin.  Had  cooperation  between  France  and  Germany 
been  possible  at  that  time,  it  would  have  carried  all  Europe 


503 

with  it  and  combined  with  America  to  the  advantage  of  an 
undertaking  of  universal  value.  How  simple  it  would  have 
been !  Such  an  idea  never  occurs  to  us  now,  and  yet  it 
was  a  strongly  patriotic  Alsatian,  Auguste  Lalance,  who 
wrote :  "If  M.  de  Lesseps  had  found  the  financial  support 
for  which  he  hoped  in  Berlin,  the  Panama  Canal  would  have 
been  finished  by  French  and  German  capital  and  engineers, 
in  conjunction  with  those  of  other  countries,  and  there 
would  be  no  talk  of  American  forts  to  be  used  to  prevent 
ships  from  entering  it." 

Had  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps  and  his  engineers  been  able 
to  complete  their  work,  America  would  have  profited  by 
it,  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  world.  France  would  have  had 
no  exclusive  advantage  from  it,  any  more  than  she  has  had 
anything  from  Egypt,  which,  in  a  similar  spirit  of  timidity, 
she  gave  up  to  England  in  1882.  Here  we  have  another 
instance  of  what  harm  is  done  to  the  world  when  France 
fails  in  her  duty. 

The  harm  might  have  been  greater.  The  panic  in  France 
was  so  severe  that  the  Panama  Canal  ran  the  risk  of  being 
disqualified  in  the  future  and  even  in  the  past,  and  judged 
unworthy  not  merely  of  being  finished  but  of  ever  having 
been  begun.  Sentence  would  then  have  been  pronounced 
against  not  only  the  work  itself  but  against  its  French  con 
ception;  that  is  to  say,  against  French  genius.  There 
was  some  ground  for  this  mistaken  view  when  the  still-born 
scheme  for  the  Nicaragua  Canal  was  brought  forward,  but 
it  failed,  thanks  to  our  energetic  compatriot,  M.  Bunau- 
Varilla,  to  whom  it  may  be  said  that  the  Panama  Canal 
owes  its  resurrection.1 

1U Panama:  La  creation,  la  destruction,  la  resurrection."  By  Philippe 
Bunau-Varilla,  formerly  of  the  Public  Works  Department  (France),  chief 
engineer  of  the  Panama  Canal  and  minister  plenipotentiary  of  the  Repub 
lic  of  Panama  at  Washington  in  1903  and  1904.  i  vol.  8vo.  Plon,  Paris, 


504 


AMERICA    AND   HER    PROBLEMS 


President  Roosevelt.    American  Energy 


This  much  being  said,  we  must  add,  to  the  credit  of  the 
Americans,  that  President  Roosevelt's  administration 
took  up  the  abandoned  work  and  was  followed  by  Mr. 
Taft  in  carrying  it  on  to  a  successful  conclusion  with 
exceptional  vigor  and  courage.  Next  year,  if  no  unfore 
seen  circumstances  occur,  vessels,  whether  of  war  or  peace, 
will  make  their  way,  for  the  first  time,  from  one  ocean  to 
the  other.  In  this  case  also,  Americans  have  been  helped 
by  their  national  youth,  by  the  progress  of  mechanics  and 
hygiene,  by  their  untiring  discipline,  their  spirit  of  organiza 
tion  and  their  men,  foremost  of  whom  must  be  named  the 
chief  engineer  of  the  canal,  Colonel  Goethals.  They  have 
deserved  well  of  humanity.  The  Panama  Canal  will  be 
a  triumph  of  French  initiative  and  American  organization. 
History,  after  being  momentarily  led  astray,  will  not  be 
diverted  from  this  conclusion.  The  Americans  utilized 
our  first  excavations  and  our  machinery,  which  is  still  in 
good  condition,  and  our  plans,  but  they  have  of  course 
modernized  and  modified  their  own  plan  of  action  year  by 
year.  Their  locks  are  immense,  and  all  their  gigantic 
machinery,  designed  to  raise  the  largest  vessels  like  mere 
scows,  is  on  the  same  scale.  Perhaps  they  have  even 
done  things  too  hugely.  The  assistance  of  French  engi 
neers,  with  all  their  experience  and  conscientiousness,  would 
not  have  been  an  unnecessary  precaution  against  the  great 
risks,  both  natural  and  accidental,  that  will  threaten  the 
canal,  in  the  guise  of  landslips  and  earthquakes,  until  it 
settles  down  into  its  final  and  expected  form,  that  of  a 
strait.  The  Americans  have  done  wonders  in  the  organiza 
tion  of  the  auxiliary  services,  especially  those  connected 
with  hygiene,  which  have  given  excellent  results.  They 
have  made  the  most  unsanitary  districts  healthy;  the 
terrible  Chagres  fever  has  died  out.  We  are  a  long  way 


505 

from  the  time  when  it  was  said  that  every  railroad  sleeper 
marked  a  Chinese  coolie's  grave.  The  Americans  have 
built  sewers,  made  cleanliness  obligatory  everywhere  and 
sobriety  wherever  possible.  They  have  reduced  the  num 
ber  of  saloons  and  exercised  strict  control  over  the  sale  of 
liquor.  Acting  on  Laveran's  discovery  of  the  malarial 
fever  microbe  and  on  the  facts  ascertained  by  a  Cuban 
doctor,  Carlos  Finley,  who  was  strongly  backed  by  General 
Wood  and  Major  Gorgas,  they  have  made  war  on  the  "steg- 
omyia,"  or  mosquito  that  conveys  the  germ  of  yellow 
fever.  They  have  drained  the  ponds  and  stagnant  waters 
and  burned  the  bushes  in  which  this  death-dealing  insect 
bred.  They  have  provided  workmen's  houses,  clubs, 
camps,  hospitals  and  hotels,  and  have  taken  such  definite 
and  properly  observed  precautions  that  the  death  rate  is 
now  lower  than  in  many  very  healthy  parts  of  the  United 
States.  They  have  tapped  springs,  obtained  supplies  of 
good  drinking  water,  and  built  schools  for  the  children  of 
their  workmen,  who,  being  no  longer  afraid  to  come,  are 
bringing  up  their  families  on  the  spot.  At  little  expense 
they  have  organized  a  special  police  force,  composed  of 
whites  and  colored  men.  They  pay  good  wages.  They 
selected  the  teaching  staff  for  their  schools  with  due  re 
gard  to  all  susceptibilities,  and  have  white,  Spanish  and 
negro  teachers,  both  men  and  women.  A  working  popu 
lation  of  6000  whites  and  19,000  colored  people  is  thus 
enabled  to  live,  on  the  whole,  very  peaceably,  and  to  work 
under  good  conditions  of  health.  The  enterprise  which 
we  despaired  of  seeing  completed  has  succeeded,  thanks 
to  scrupulous  attention  to  an  infinitude  of  details,  careful 
ness  and  tenacity,  and  by  the  Americans'  disregard  of  the 
criticisms  or  calumnies  which  have  been,  and  will  be, 
showered  on  them.  Finally,  from  the  financial  point  of 
view,  they  have  come  to  realize  all  that  the  enterprise 
means  in  the  future ;  they  had  faith,  and  they  have  kept  it. 


506  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Fortifications 

But  the  more  I  appreciate,  in  this  instance  as  in  others, 
American  merits,  the  less  I  understand  why  a  great  navy 
is  indispensable  for  the  protection  of  the  canal.  They 
have  already,  to  my  mind,  made  a  mistake  in  fortifying 
it. 

And  yet  the  example  of  the  Suez  Canal  was  eloquent 
enough. 

Monarchical  Europe  as  it  was  in  1869,  France,  Russia, 
Austria,  England,  Italy,  Germany,  Spain,  Turkey,  Greece, 
etc.,  managed  to  agree  that  there  should  be  no  fortifications 
around  the  Suez  Canal,  although  it  is  where  wars  famous 
in  history  have  been  waged ;  where  Asiatic,  European  and 
African  civilizations  once  came  into  conflict,  and  where, 
at  the  end  of  the  Mediterranean  lake,  the  center  of  antici 
pated  future  hostilities  will  be  located.  All  these  nations, 
in  a  state  of  age-long  rivalry  which  was  still  acute,  were  able 
to  agree  on  the  necessity  of  respecting  the  canal ;  and  this 
arrangement  has  satisfied  the  world's  trade  so  thoroughly 
as  to  withstand  the  severest  tests  since  1869.  Noth 
ing  has  endangered  the  canal's  neutrality  —  neither  the 
Franco-German  war,  nor  the  British  occupation  of  Egypt 
and  the  Soudan,  nor  the  Russo-Turkish  war,  nor  the  Graeco- 
Turkish  war,  nor  the  Turkish-Italian  war  nor  the  war  in 
the  Balkans.1  This  neutrality  has  emerged  intact  from  all 
the  conflicts  which  looked  as  if  they  must  render  it  im 
possible.  It  seems  to  be  intangible,  because  it  is  in  the 
general  interest.  And  we  are  to  suppose  that  the  republic 
of  the  United  States,  which  has  had  no  experience  of  the 
chronic  rivalry  between  neighboring  states  in  old  Europe, 
which  has  had  no  obstacle  to  surmount  except  an  almost 
defenseless  Colombia  and  negotiations  with  the  weak  states 

1  Nor  the  war  in  1914-1915,  despite  the  violation  of  every  rule  of  inter 
national  justice  by  Germany  and  her  allies.  (March,  1915.) 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  507 

of  Central  America,  which  had  all  the  maritime  powers  in 
the  world  on  its  side,  will  fail  to  profit  by  such  an  example 
and  will  decide  to  retrograde !  It  has  fortified  the  Panama 
Canal!  Against  whom?  Against  revolution,  anarchy  or 
the  possible  coalition  of  a  few  South  American  republics? 
To  give  due  protection  to  the  docks,  machinery  and  free 
dom  of  navigation?  A  well-organized  police  force,  sup 
ported  by  all  the  forces  in  the  world,  would  have  been  more 
than  enough.  Against  Japan?  How,  let  me  ask  for  the 
hundredth  time,  could  Japan  strike  at  such  a  distance, 
especially  as  an  attack  on  Panama  would  be  like  an  attack 
on  the  world  at  large? 

Enfeeblement  through  Militarism 

The  fortification  of  the  Panama  Canal  is  unjustifiable 
in  equity  and  principle,  and  useless  in  fact.  It  is  another 
sign  of  the  growth  of  American  imperialism.  It  is  the  out 
come  of  the  bad  influences  brought  to  bear  on  official 
circles  in  Washington ;  it  is  a  military  act  without  a  motive. 
It  is  a  seizure  of  what  ought  to  be  common  property  and 
an  outrage  on  the  world's  confidence.  It  was  also,  I  repeat, 
a  clumsy  and  unnecessary  act.  The  arguments  put  forward 
by  the  American  administration  to  justify  itself  can  be 
turned  against  it.  The  war  minister  sums  them  up  in  his 
above-mentioned  report  (p.  12)  with  surprising  frankness: 
"We  must  open  the  canal  to  American  fleets  and  close  it 
against  our  enemies."  It  should  be  noted  that  the  forts 
themselves  will  have  to  be  defended  by  25,000  troops. 
These  must  be  supported  by  a  fleet,  which,  in  turn,  will 
need  a  base  in  the  shape  of  the  works  it  is  proposed  to 
carry  out  at  Guantanamo,  not  to  mention  the  Pacific. 
What  a  very  promising  prospect!  Something  might  be 
said  for  this  endless  expenditure  if  it  contained  any  cer 
tainty  of  safety,  but  the  reality  is  quite  different,  as  is 


508  AMERICA    AND   HER    PROBLEMS 

shown  by  the  advocates  of  fortification  themselves  in  their 
agitation  for  armaments.  Major  General  G.  W.  Davis, 
in  the  "American  Journal  of  International  Law"  (October, 
1909),  said  that  if  the  canal  were  monopolized  by  the  United 
States,  it  would  cease  to  be  protected  by  the  general  in 
terest;  it  would  become  a  reserved  passage,  in  reality  a 
weapon  in  the  hands  of  the  United  States  and  an  obstacle 
and  a  menace  for  all  other  countries.  Under  these  cir 
cumstances,  it  would  be  to  the  interest  of  the  other  coun 
tries  to  destroy  the  canal.  The  main  object  of  the  war 
would  be,  for  the  one  side,  to  retain  possession  of  the 
canal  and,  for  the  other,  to  close  it ;  and  this  alone  would 
be  enough  in  itself  to  give  rise  to  a  war  of  which  no  one 
would  have  thought  previously. 

The  United  States  will  concentrate  their  efforts  on  closing 
the  canal  under  their  guard,  and  it  will  have  to  be  closed 
very  thoroughly,  because  its  destruction  will  be  the  object 
and  the  essential  feature  of  the  war  and  the  incentive  to 
the  most  daring  and  heroic  enterprises  by  the  handful  of 
determined  patriots  who  will  be  tempted  to  follow  the 
example  of  Captain  Hobson.1  How  can  there  be  any 
certainty  that  some  vessel,  flying  a  neutral  flag,  has  not 
been  bought  by  a  belligerent  and  does  not  carry  enough 
explosives  in  its  cargo  to  blow  up  a  lock?  If  such  an 
attempt  succeeded,  the  vital  communication  on  which 

1  Captain  Richmond  P.  Hobson  is  the  justly  celebrated  American  hero 
who  bottled  up  the  Spanish  fleet  in  Havana  harbor  by  sinking  the  Merrimac, 
of  which  he  was  given  the  command,  at  the  entrance  to  the  channel.  A 
brilliant  student  of  the  Annapolis  Naval  College,  and  afterwards  an  officer 
in  the  engineering  branch  of  the  navy,  he  is  now  Democratic  congressman  for 
the  state  of  Alabama.  In  Congress  he  advocates  the  greater  navy  cause 
with  all  the  warmth  of  a  Christian  Scientist.  The  hero  has  become  an 
apostle.  He  has  devoted  his  life  to  denouncing  the  Japanese  peril  and 
asking  for  dreadnoughts.  His  are  the  ideas  I  have  controverted  in  Chapter 
VI,  "The  Inevitable  War,"  and  I  had  him  especially  in  mind  when  I  re 
marked  that  there  are  Democrats  who  want  an  increased  naval  outlay,  and 
Republicans,  like  Burton,  who  oppose  it. 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  509 

the  United  States  relied  would  be  cut  off,  their  operations 
would  be  suspended,  their  plans  upset  and  their  public 
opinion  demoralized. 

What  a  splendid  result  this  would  be !  Let  us,  however, 
consider  the  situation  only  in  time  of  peace.  The  Ameri 
cans  might  have  confined  themselves  to  carrying  out  a 
useful  and  magnificent  work  in  Panama  and  the  Philip 
pines.  They  went  beyond  the  scope  of  their  mission.  In 
Panama  they  assumed  responsibilities  that  are  without 
limit  and  are  full  of  danger  for  all.  They  have  assumed 
responsibility  for  a  route  on  which  every  accident  of  man 
agement  will  inevitably  be  exaggerated  through  the  mere 
fact  of  their  predominance  and  will  become  a  political 
matter.  How  injurious  this  will  be  to  civilization  and  the 
higher  interest  of  the  United  States!  What  a  piece  of 
bravado  and  what  a  seeking  after  unpopularity !  Imagine 
the  ships  of  all  nations,  after  using  the  Suez  Canal  freely 
for  forty  years,  going  through  the  Panama  Canal  under 
the  guns  of  American  forts!  What  an  unpleasant  differ 
ence,  and  what  an  effect  will  be  created  on  the  public 
mind !  It  is  by  pretensions  of  this  kind,  and  by  the  use 
of  Might  in  defiance  of  Right,  that  Germany  has  done 
herself  so  much  harm  in  the  world's  estimation,  and  now 
we  have  the  American  democracy  falling  into  the  imperial 
error  even  before  it  possesses  the  army  and  navy  necessary 
to  support  such  an  attitude. 

The  precautions  alleged  to  be  in  the  interest  of  American 
trade  can  only  do  it  harm.  The  Panama  Canal  ought  to 
be  an  instance  of  progress  as  compared  with  the  Suez 
Canal.  Instead  of  being  in  the  hands  of  a  single  power  or, 
in  other  words,  in  the  hands  of  a  single  government,  which 
may  mean  some  day,  perhaps,  a  single  clique,  it  ought  to 
be  under  the  protection  of  the  whole  world. 

An  unfortified  Panama  Canal  would  have  been  even 
more  neutral  than  the  Suez  Canal.  It  would  have  been 


510  AMERICA    AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

less  exposed  to  attack  and,  consequently  better  defended  by 
the  general  interest.1 

Preferential  Tolls 

We  must  resign  ourselves  to  this  belittling  of  a  great 
work  and  put  up  with  these  fortifications,  which  are  more 
humiliating  for  those  who  force  them  on  the  world  than 
for  those  who  accept  the  situation ;  but  let  us  follow  up 
the  consequences  of  America's  mistake.  Under  pretense 
of  protecting  a  neutrality  which  had  nothing  to  fear  from 
any  one,  the  United  States  will  have  to  burden  themselves 
with  garrisons,  with  fleets  that  will  attract  other  fleets, 
and  so  on.  But  this  is  not  all.  There  is  a  big  bill  to  be 
paid;  and,  to  provide  the  immense  sums  that  all  these 
precautions  will  cost  the  United  States,  it  has  been  found 
necessary  to  make  further  inroads  upon  universal  rights,2 
and,  under  color  of  giving  advantages  to  a  few  non-existent 
shipping  companies,  to  prepare  to  make  all  foreign  vessels 
pay  preferential  tolls,  which  would  be  prohibitive  for  some 
and  would  be  to  the  sole  advantage  of  the  United  States. 
This  amounts  to  a  boycott  of  international  commerce  in 
the  canal.  Tolls  and  big  guns !  What  a  welcome  for  the 
world's  shipping  in  this  supposedly  universal  waterway ! 
If  it  be  asked  whether  there  was  anything  in  the  treaty 
obligations  or  statements  of  the  United  States  government 
to  justify  such  a  boycott,  the  answer  is  "No."  In  his 
manifesto,  which  is  quite  a  political  testament,  John  Hay 
says:  "The  canal  must  be  open  to  every  nation  in  the 
world  on  the  same  terms"  His  successor,  Elihu  Root,  has 
frequently  and  still  more  emphatically  confirmed  these 

1  The  objection  may  be  made  that  the  general  interest  no  longer  exists ; 
but,  as  will  be  seen  further  on,  if  we  are  henceforward  to  reason  in  accord 
ance  with  the  experience  of  the  present  war  and  on  the  hypothesis  that  in 
future  there  will  be  neither  treaties  nor  contracts  nor  justice,  it  will  be  a 
mere  waste  of  time  to  provide  for  what  may  happen,  or  even  to  think,  and 
all  we  have  to  do  is  to  make  a  deliberate  return  to  a  state  of  savagery. 

2  Since  repealed. 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  511 

words,  which  are  merely  a  reminder  of  the  express  stipu 
lations  contained  in  the  Hay-Pauncefote  treaty:  "The 
canal  shall  be  free  and  open  to  merchant  ships  and  warships 
of  all  nationalities,  subject  to  compliance  with  the  regula 
tions.  Absolute  equality  shall  be  observed  in  the  tolls 
levied  on  all  these  vessels,  and  no  distinction  shall  be  made 
which  maybe  unfavorable  to  any  nationality  or  its  nationals, 
either  as  regards  traffic  regulations  or  tolls  levied  in  any 
other  way." 

Treaty  Violation 

The  repudiation  of  such  engagements,  which  are  still 
quite  recent,  and  the  violation  of  such  definite  treaty 
obligations,  constitute  a  very  unpleasant  symptom.  The 
proposed  violation  has  aroused  a  chorus  of  protest  from 
every  government  and  country  in  the  world  and,  for 
tunately,  has  been  loudly  and,  at  last,  successfully,  reechoed 
in  the  United  States.  It  was  first  made  by  England,  the 
signatory  of  the  violated  treaty  and  the  nation  chiefly  af 
fected  by  the  intended  boycott.  English  shipping,  if  it  were 
compelled  to  pay  preferential  tolls,  would  lose  all  the  ad 
vantage  of  the  canal  and  be  obliged  to  go  on  using  the  Suez 
Canal,  so  that  the  Americans  would  find  themselves  unin 
tentionally  helping  their  competitor.  The  Panama  Bill 
would  have  done  more  harm  to  British  merchants  than  to 
their  German  competitors,  because  it  would  close  the  whole 
of  the  American  Pacific  coast  to  their  imports.  The  Cana 
dians,  whose  transcontinental  railroad  traffic  is  already 
threatened,  would  be  still  harder  hit.  A  vessel  bound  from 
Halifax  to  San  Francisco  would  pay  very  heavy  tolls,  which 
may  be  estimated  at  a  minimum,  on  an  average,  of  a  dollar 
a  ton  of  cargo.  A  cargo  boat  carrying  20,000  tons  of  coal 
or  wheat  would  pay  twenty  thousand  dollars  each  voyage, 
from  which  tolls  American  vessels  following  the  same  course 
but  starting  from  Boston  or  New  York  would  be  exempted. 


512  AMERICA    AND    HER    PROBLEMS 

Worse  still,  a  vessel  bound  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  from 
Vera  Cruz  or  Tampico,  to  Acapulco  or  any  other  port  in 
western  Mexico  would  have  to  pay  tolls,  as  would  a  boat 
plying  from  Colombia  and  back,  and  so  on.  The  Panama 
Canal  would  seem  as  if  it  were  intended  solely  to  favor 
American  shipping  to  the  detriment  of  that  of  the  entire 
earth.  It  has  been  calculated  that  it  would  be  to  the  ad 
vantage  of  Canadian  vessels  bound  for  California  or  Chili 
to  take  the  Suez  Canal  route. 

American  opposition  to  this  scheme  has  been  voiced  by 
what  is  best  in  the  country's  political  and  intellectual  life. 
"The  national  honor  is  at  stake.  Are  we,  or  are  we  not, 
to  break  our  plighted  word,  endanger  our  credit,  and  even 
our  reputation  and  incur  the  odium  of  the  entire  world? 
Are  we  to  adopt  the  saying :  1 1  promised,  but  I  will  not 
keep  my  promise'?  The  loss  of  general  confidence  is  a 
serious  question  for  a  country.  It  amounts  to  commercial 
suicide.  Have  Americans  calculated  what  it  costs  to  appear 
in  the  world's  markets  with  a  doubtful  reputation  ?  Has  it 
occurred  to  them  that  in  this  way  they  will  lose  their  best 
customers  and  best  outlets  ?  Abandoning  one's  reputation 
and  trademark  in  international  life  is  like  killing  the  goose 
with  the  golden  eggs."  This  is  a  summary  of  the  argu 
ments  put  forward,  and  they  have  finally  borne  fruit. 

Arbitration  Suggested  and  Rejected 

At  first,  Mr.  Taft's  administration,  although  it  had  asked 
England  and  France  to  agree  to  treaties  for  obligatory  and 
unlimited  arbitration,  did  not  hesitate  to  contradict  it 
self,  and  even  to  violate  a  treaty  previously  signed  on 
June  5,  1908,  by  going  so  far  as  to  refuse  to  submit  the 
question  to  arbitration !  President  Roosevelt  himself  ex 
pressly  blamed  this  refusal,  and  wrote  (Jan.  7,  1913) :  "  We 
ought  to  leave  it  to  the  Hague  Tribunal."  Here  is  what 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  513 

was  said,  in  the  same  spirit,  by  Elihu  Root  in  Congress  at 
Washington  on  January  21,  1913  :  "After  having  tried  to 
make  others  accept  arbitration,  we  should  be  guilty  of  re 
volting  hypocrisy  if  we  refused  to  agree  to  it  ourselves. 
How  could  we  respect  ourselves  or  expect  others  to  respect 
us?  Are  we  to  let  it  be  supposed  that  our  country,  our 
Congress  and  our  President  have  been  fooling  the  world 
and  simply  talking  to  the  gallery,  for  the  sake  of  applause  ? 
It  is  a  fine  thing  to  belong  to  a  great  country,  but  size 
alone  does  not  make  greatness. " 

Since  it  became  the  absolute  master  of  the  future  channel 
of  communication  between  two  hemispheres,  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  has  thus,  in  the  space  of  a  few 
years,  been  led  on  to  violate  one  obligation  after  another, 
from  taking  possession  of  a  territorial  zone  (in  itself  an  act 
open  to  criticism)  to  fortifying  the  canal ;  from  building 
forts  to  levying  preferential  tolls,  and  from  preferential 
tolls  to  a  refusal  of  arbitration. 


4.   Customs  Tariffs.     Pessimism.     Conclusion.     Inadequate 

Justice 

Is  this  all,  and  can  we  close  the  list  of  American  mistakes 
at  this  point?  No;  man  is  infinitely  prone  to  error,  no 
matter  on  what  side  of  the  ocean  he  lives ;  but  I  have  not 
yet  dealt  with  the  tariffs.  They  have  made  themselves  so 
familiar  that  it  is  hardly  necessary  for  me  to  discuss  them. 
They  are  one  of  the  sources  of  revenue  out  of  which  the 
extravagant  Federal  outlay  is  met.  Unfortunately  these 
tariffs,  in  addition  to  being  exorbitantly  high,  protect  a 
few  privileged  industries,  which  generally  work  together, 
to  the  detriment  of  the  great  mass  of  consumers  and  pro 
ducers.  On  the  ground  that  sheep-breeding,  which  is 
none  the  less  dwindling  away  steadily,  must  be  protected, 
Americans  are  prevented  from  manufacturing  and  wearing 

2L 


514  AMERICA   AND    HER   PROBLEMS 

woolen  materials ;   cotton  enjoys  an  overwhelming  monop 
oly,   and  so   on.      Several  industries  are  killed    for    the 
benefit  of  a  single  one.     Living  is  made  expensive.     Initia 
tive  is  put  to  sleep  in  some  cases  and  paralyzed  in  others. 
There  was  some  reason  for  the  establishment  of  these 
tariffs  in  a  new  country  desirous  of  building  up  its  own 
industries,  but  protection  finally  degenerates  into  oppres 
sion.     The  tariffs  themselves  are  only  a  part  of  the  trouble. 
What  is  particularly  objectionable  is  the  manner  in  which 
they  are  put  into  operation.     There  are  unjust  and  arbi 
trary  proceedings  on  the  part  of  the  customs  officials  that 
do  still  more  harm  to  the  friendship  than  to  the  commercial 
relations  between  two  countries;    there  is  a  system  of  in 
quisition,    lawlessness,    insecurity,    unpunished    and    en 
couraged    imitation,    constant    infringements    on    trade 
marks  —  a   system   under  which   the   trusts   are   sure  to 
crush   all   competition,    and   silence   all   complaints,  and 
abuses  of  every  kind  prevail.     There  must,  however,  be 
an  end  to  everything,  and  the  time  is  coming  when  the 
Americans  themselves  will  perceive  that  these  abuses  do 
more  harm  to  themselves  than  to  their  customers.     They 
are  becoming  sellers  and  are  exporting  their  manufactures ; 
and  they  are  beginning  to  find  out  that  while  they  have 
been  able  to  do  as  they  pleased  in  their  own  home  markets, 
thanks  to  the  absence  of  competition,  they  cannot  act  in 
the  same  way  in  foreign  markets.     They  are  coming  into 
business  relations  with  the  world.     This  is  progress,  and 
it  will  compel  them  to  adopt  other  forms  of  progress. 

It  might  be  better  if  the  victims  of  United  States  pro 
tective  tariffs  could  make  their  complaints  heard,  but 
foreigners  encounter  too  many  difficulties  and  incur  too 
much  expense  and  risk.  As  for  the  Americans,  we  know 
how  President  Roosevelt  encouraged  judicial  independence 
by  bringing  forward  his  famous  "Recall,"  intended  to 
enable  the  people  itself  to  quash  judgments  and,  better 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  515 

still,  to  dismiss  judges  whose  findings  might  happen  to 
annoy  the  majority  for  the  time  being.  What  kind  of 
principles  are  these,  and  by  what  a  great  gulf  are  they 
divided  from  the  generous  idealistic  movement,  which  is 
showing  its  signs  of  life,  as  we  have  seen,  all  over  the 
country ! 

"  Pork  Barrel "  Legislation 

After  this  we  can  hardly  be  surprised  at  the  farcical  na 
ture  of  parliamentary  control  and  the  subserviency  of  the 
people's  elected  representatives  to  cleverly  organized 
cliques.  A  congressman  elected  for  two  years,  or  even  a 
senator  elected  for  six,  would  have  to  be  simply  heroic  to 
hold  out  against  the  systematic  pillaging  of  the  Federal 
funds  when  he  sees  that  the  government  itself,  while  con 
stantly  talking  about  economy,  either  puts  up  with  this 
pillaging  or  encourages  it ;  when  an  influential  member  of 
Congress  felt  justified  in  stating  that  three  hundred  million 
dollars  a  year  could  be  saved  if  the  administration  of  the 
United  States  were  conducted  on  business  lines;  when 
every  state,  district  and  city  goes  in  for  "pork  barrel" 
legislation,1  and  demands  a  slice  of  the  cake  in  the  form 
of  public  works  that  are  not  needed  and  buildings  that 
have  only  an  electoral  utility ;  when,  finally,  we  see,  oper 
ating  with  impressive  regularity,  all  over  the  country,  that 
extraordinary  body  whose  effects  I  have  described,  the 

1  By  "pork  barrel"  legislation  is  meant  the  voting  of  Federal  funds  for 
personal  and  political  motives  and  not  for  the  public  good.  It  means  ' '  Every 
one  for  himself."  To  get  what  he  wants,  a  member  undertakes  to  vote 
for  what  the  others  want.  It  is  equivalent  to  the  principle  expressed  by 
"Scratch  my  back  and  I  will  scratch  yours,"  and  is  well  known  in  other 
parliaments  besides  the  American. 

This  system  has  led  to  an  immeasurable  increase  in  "pork  barrel "  legisla 
tion  and  to  an  increase  in  expenditure  to  the  extent  of  243  per  cent,  while 
the  increase  of  the  population  has  reached  only  118  per  cent. 

The  appropriations  for  the  two  financial  years  1877  and  1878  were 
still  only  $596,000,000,  while  those  for  1911-1912  came  to  $2,055,000,000  or 
more  than  a  thousand  million  dollars  a  year. 


516  AMERICA   AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  —  an  organization  in  which 
an  inner  circle,  under  the  cloak  of  patriotism,  aims  at  noth 
ing  but  an  increase  in  the  notorious  military  pension  list  and 
can  plead  that  it  is  only  a  copy  of  similar  scandals  in 
Europe,  such  as  the  leagues,  also  styled  "patriotic,"  that  act 
as  connecting  links  between  the  Press,  the  government  de 
partments  and  the  military  purveyors  of  the  German 
government  itself !  It  has  been  calculated  that,  under 
this  system,  there  has  been  no  increase,  but  rather  a  de 
crease,  in  the  amount  of  imported  foreign  produce  per 
capita  during  the  past  century,  while  the  cost  of  govern 
ment,  which  ought  to  become  proportionately  smaller  as 
the  number  of  inhabitants  increases,  as  should  be  the  case 
with  every  large  private  concern,  is  now,  on  the  contrary, 
three  times  as  large  per  head  of  population.  The  rule  is 
thus  reversed.  My  experience  as  a  Frenchman  unfortu 
nately  leads  me  to  note  these  facts  with  little  surprise.  In 
my  country  the  blame  is  laid  at  the  door  of  members  of 
Parliament,  and  an  electoral  reform  scheme,  which  is 
supposed  to  be  a  panacea  but  would  in  reality  only  make 
things  worse,  has  been  proposed.  The  newspapers  are 
also  accused,  but  they  merely  reflect  the  views  of  their 
readers,  the  private  interests  back  of  them,  and  the  gov 
ernment  that  utilizes  them.  Where  a  change  is  needed  is 
in  morals  generally,  and  this  is  beginning  to  be  understood. 

Public  Spirit  Will  Reform  the  Administration 

In  this  sense,  it  is  possible  to  say  that  there  is  something 
new  in  the  United  States.  It  is  not  the  national  govern 
ment  but  the  national  spirit  —  the  public  spirit  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  is  becoming  educated.  The  rest  will 
follow. 

In  the  meantime,  the  pessimists  find  it  the  simplest 
plan  to  despair  of  the  future.  Their  latest  argument  is 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  517 

not  without  interest ;   they  have  made  up  their  minds  that 
the  United  States  are  already  degenerating,  and  in  this  way : 


New  Immigration 

The  population  of  the  United  States  has  undergone  a 
change  during  the  past  twenty-five,  or  even  ten,  years. 
The  northern  parts  of  Europe  either  keep  their  own  in 
habitants  or  send  them  out  to  the  colonies  or  new  countries, 
so  that  the  source  of  emigration  from  Europe  to  America  now 
is  verging  towards  what  the  English  contemptuously  call "  the 
East-end  of  Europe."  The  Irish  element,  for  instance,  sup 
plies  less  than  it  did.  If  we  consult  only  the  statistics  of  the 
city  of  New  York,  which  has  an  enormous  number  of  foreign- 
born  inhabitants  (almost  as  numerous  as  Americans)  and  to 
which  there  is  a  constant  influx  of  Italians,  Greeks,  Arme 
nians,  Israelites,  Slavs,  Levantines  and  natives  of  European 
and  Asiatic  Turkey,  we  find  that  the  total  of  German 
"foreign-born"  has  declined  from  324,224  in  1900 to  278,137 
in  1910.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Italians  have  increased 
from  145,433  to  340,770;  the  "foreign-born"  put  down 
under  the  head  of  "Austrians"  have  grown  from  90,477  to 
190,246,  and  the  Russians  from  180,432  to  484,1 93. 1  Are 
we  to  conclude  from  this  that  the  American  strain  will  be 
affected  by  such  an  infusion  of  Southern  and  Oriental,  as 
well  as  negro  and  Asiatic,  blood,  and  that  traditions  of  ser 
vitude  will  be  implanted  in  the  land  of  liberty?  It  is  evi 
dent  that  emigrants  of  the  first  generation,  however  rigor 
ously  methods  of  selection  may  be  applied  to  them,  bring 

1  There  are  more  Israelites  (Russian,  German,  Levantine  and  others)  in 
New  York  than  there  are  inhabitants  in  a  great  capital.  New  York  has 
several  Hebrew  theaters  and  Hebrew  newspapers.  Public  notices,  in  the 
parks  for  instance,  such  as  "  Keep  off  the  grass  "  are  printed  in  four  languages, 
one  of  which  is  Hebrew.  As  many  as  ten  languages  are  used  in  the  post 
offices  for  the  convenience  of  the  public.  These  figures  give  some  idea  of 
the  difficulty  of  governing  a  great  American  city. 


518  AMERICA    AND    HER    PROBLEMS 

constitutional  defects  with  them ;  and  strange  things  have 
been  said  about  the  original  population  of  Australia  !  Men, 
however,  like  plants,  undergo  alteration  under  the  influence 
of  new  soil,  climate  and  ideals.  To  the  land  of  their  choice 
they  bring  not  only  their  inherited  tendencies  but  a  deter 
mination  to  begin  a  new  life,  and  this  general  aspiration 
towards  a  better  future  is,  in  its  influence  on  the  race,  more 
important  than  voluntarily  severed  associations  with  the 
past.  The  second  generation  differs  profoundly  from  the 
first,  which  itself  becomes  considerably  modified,  and  the 
effects  of  marriage  with  other  elements  in  the  population 
must  also  be  considered. 

We  can  understand  that  the  United  States  are  a  source 
of  uneasiness,  when  judged  from  the  outside  by  foreigners 
who  are  disagreeably  impressed  by  their  faults  but  do  not 
know  their  good  qualities  and  do  not  make  the  allowances 
to  which  youth  is  entitled ;  but  this  impression  disappears 
the  more  one  lives  in  contact  with  them,  speaks  their 
language  and  sees  them  as  they  are.  This,  at  least,  is 
what  I  have  tried  to  show. 


5.    Conclusion 

The  conclusion  I  have  reached  is  very  definite.  My 
readers  will  have  guessed  what  it  is.  It  presented  itself 
to  my  mind  before  I  had  completed  my  observations,  and 
had  returned  to  Washington  after  my  travels  through  the 
interior  and  along  the  Pacific  coast.  It  was  when  I  dis 
covered  that  the  Federal  capital,  though  very  beautiful, 
was  so  far  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  country  and  so  close 
to  Europe,  and  when  I  measured  the  distance  that  separates 
the  United  States  from  their  government !  I  have  allowed 
the  facts  to  speak  for  themselves,  and  I  will  conclude 
what  I  have  to  say  neither  in  a  doubting  nor  in  a  vaguely 
hopeful  spirit. 


Distance  between  the   United  States  and  their  Government 

There  is  a  marked  difference  between  governmental 
weaknesses  and  the  aspirations  of  the  country. 

Wherever  I  look,  whether  it  be  to  the  east,  the  west,  the 
north  or  the  south,  the  country  has  but  one  ambition  —  to 
consolidate  what  the  past  has  achieved,  to  "  develop  its 
internal  prosperity  by  the  help  of  good  international  re 
lations"  and  carry  on  its  work  in  stability,  union  and 
the  Mount  Vernon  traditions.  Such  is  the  policy  of  all 
these  Americans,  whose  fathers  quitted  Europe  so  that 
they  might  be  free. 

The  government,  on  the  other  hand,  has  departed  from 
this  policy.  I  have  not  overlooked  the  difficulties  in  its 
path,  its  efforts  or  its  merits,  but,  this  much  being  granted, 
it  has  marched  away  from  the  star  instead  of  towards  it, 
and  it  has  gone  contrary  to  the  aspirations  of  the  country ; 
and  the  various  stages  on  this  march  have  been  excessive 
protection,  the  war  with  Spain,  colonies  and  armaments. 
The  American  government  has  taken  the  wrong  line,  and, 
like  all  governments,  instead  of  admitting  its  mistake  in 
time,  it  has  obstinately  adhered  to  its  course  and  sunk  deeper 
in  the  quagmire.  While  the  country  has  kept  its  ambition 
on  a  level  with  the  idealism  attained  by  its  energetic 
founders,  the  government  has  yielded  to  the  temptation 
to  sink  below  that  level,  and  has  erroneously  supposed  that 
the  lower  would  be  the  more  popular.  It  has  chosen  the 
wrong  kind  of  ambition.  It  blushed  for  the  beneficent 
mission  incumbent  upon  it,  just  as  a  young  man  dislikes 
to  make  himself  conspicuous  by  a  good  action  in  the  com 
pany  of  scoffers.  It  was  afraid  of  not  being  like  the  others, 
of  not  being  a  government  as  great  as  the  greatest  govern 
ments.  Its  pride,  a  puerile  one,  has  been  to  imitate  the 
mistakes  it  ought  to  have  avoided.  In  other  words,  it 
has  fallen  a  victim  to  imperialism. 


52O  AMERICA,  AND   HER   PROBLEMS 

Birth  of  Imperialism 

It  was  a  very  youthful,  seductive  and  perhaps  unconscious 
imperialism  under  President  Roosevelt  —  a  budding  im 
perialism;  but  the  buds  bore  fruit  under  his  successor, 
who  could  neither  approve  of  its  encroachments  nor  moder 
ate  them.  It  has  excited  the  alarm  of  the  Republican 
elite,  whose  strong  objections  I  have  underlined,  and  I  was 
thinking  of  this  elite  when  I  said  that  they  were  more  in 
harmony  with  the  Democrats  than  with  their  own  party; 
but  they  have  been  powerless  to  stem  the  tide.  The  result 
is  none  the  less  clear  and  is  to  be  found  in  the  1912 
presidential  election.  The  Republicans  were  split  into  two 
bodies,  both  foredoomed  to  defeat.  One,  with  very  mixed 
feelings,  followed  President  Roosevelt,  and  the  other  gave 
a  half-hearted  support  to  President  Taft,  while  the  country 
gave  an  overwhelming  plurality  to  the  Democrats,  the 
party  of  protest. 

The  1912  election  was  an  outburst  of  public  opinion,  which 
was  tired  of  and  in  revolt  against  what  had  been  going  on. 
That  this  is  true  was  shown  at  once  when  the  new  President 
asked  Congress  to  revise  the  tariff  and  selected  William 
Jennings  Bryan,  the  declared  enemy  of  armaments,  as 
secretary  of  state.  But  this  revolt  of  public  opinion  is 
anything  but  revolutionary  and  is,  on  the  contrary,  quite 
opposed  to  any  such  idea.  The  policy  it  requires  has 
nothing  to  do  with  any  demagogic  threats.  It  contains 
nothing  new  and  nothing  that  is  not  normal  or  reassuring. 
It  amounts  to  a  condemnation  of  the  errors  that  George 
Washington  tried  to  avert  beforehand  by  denouncing  them 
as  "apostasy."  It  was  the  protest  of  a  country  that  is 
pulling  itself  together,  refusing  to  let  itself  be  led  astray 
any  longer  from  its  enormous  natural  sphere  of  action  or 
to  rush  blindly  into  adventurous  schemes  of  foreign  con 
quest.  It  implies  a  reversion,  at  last,  to  the  Mount 


AMERICA'S  DUTY  521 

Vernon  spirit  and  to  the  policy  of  safety  without  which 
the  United  States  would  be  false  to  their  origin,  their  name 
and  their  destiny,  and  would  become  an  ephemeral  cari 
cature  of  countless  ruined  empires. 

The  Rights  of  Man  and  the  Rights  of  the  People 

As  I  have  said,  the  success  of  this  policy  is  of  the  highest 
interest  to  Europe.  It  is  important  that  the  great  trans 
atlantic  republic  should  so  act  as  to  stand  out  in  contrast 
to  the  weaknesses  of  the  Old  World ;  that  it  should  set  an 
example  of  numerous  and  varied  states  federated  together 
in  liberty ;  that  it  should  thus  affirm  the  possibility  of  a 
form  of  progress  incredible  to  the  Old  World ;  and  that  it 
should  at  last  complete  our  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of 
Man  by  a  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Nations. 

The  Renovation  of  Europe 

The  Americans  are  not  free  from  all  obligations  towards 
Europe.  Let  them  apply  their  national  enthusiasm  to  in 
ternational  life.  As  they  call  upon  children  to  regenerate 
parents,  so  let  them  act  as  good  sons  to  the  countries  from 
which  they  sprang,  and  let  the  renovation  of  Europe  be 
their  work !  All  their  initiative,  all  their  good  will  and  all 
their  religious  zeal  combined  will  not  be  too  much  to  over 
come  our  egoism  and  routine.  Let  them  be  worthy  of  their 
ancestors  and  of  ours.  Let  it  be  their  glory  to  become 
guides  and  not  masters. 

The  American's  Duty 

Here  lies  the  interest,  as  well  as  the  duty,  of  the  United 
States. 

FINIS 


SUPPLEMENTARY  NOTE 

The  following  letter  was  distributed  in  December,  1913, 
through  the  American  Association  for  International  Con 
ciliation  to  the  schools  and  other  groups  of  young  people 
with  whom  Baron  d'Estournelles  de  Constant  had  come 
into  contact  during  his  visits  to  the  United  States  and 
Canada. 


HAPPY   NEW  YEAR   TO   MY   MANY   YOUNG 
FRIENDS   IN  THE  UNITED   STATES 

PARIS,  DECEMBER,  1913. 
DEAR  YOUNG  FRIENDS  : 

One  of  your  most  devoted  guides  in  America  asked 
me,  two  years  ago,  to  let  you  hear  a  short  talk  on  help 
ful  subjects  for  morning  exercises,  anything,  he  says, 
to  make  you  happier  or  better.  I  kept  his  fine  and  gener 
ous  letter  a  long  time  on  my  table ;  very  often  I  thought  of 
it,  but  it  is  only  this  morning  that  I  can  write  a  suitable 
answer.  I  will  write  as  I  can,  knowing  that  you  are  not  too 
critical,  and  that  you  prefer  my  poor  English  to  my  best 
French.  What  I  care  for  is  not  to  send  you  a  literary 
message,  but  to  reach  your  hearts. 

I  have  traveled  a  great  deal  and  I  am  able  now  to  draw 
from  the  various  experiences  of  my  life  a  conclusion  which 
may  be  of  use  to  you,  young  friends,  who  have  been  so 
kind  to  me.  Supposing  that  you  can  avail  yourselves  of  my 
efforts,  and  that  I  can  save  part  of  your  future  troubles 
and  deceptions,  that  will  be  the  reward  of  your  kindness, 
and  a  new  illustration  of  our  French  proverb  :  "  Un  bienfait 
n'estjamais  perdu" 

You  cannot  know,  indeed,  what  a  blessing  is  the  sym 
pathy  of  youth  for  a  man  or  for  a  woman  of  good  will  who 
has  been  depressed  by  the  cold  faces,  by  the  indifference 
and  the  prejudices  of  the  so-called  "reasonable  people." 

When  I  feel  sad  and  nearly  discouraged,  I  can  recover 
at  once  by  simply  meeting  the  pure  and  confident  eyes  of 
a  child ;  —  even  a  young  dog,  suddenly  jumping  or  looking 
at  me  with  joy,  can  change  my  mind  and  refresh  it ;  it  can 

525 


526  AMERICA    AND    HER   PROBLEMS 

give  me  a  new  start.  And  so  it  is  with  the  shining  of  the 
morning  light. 

Be  kind,  obliging,  my  dear  friends,  not  only  to  your 
friends  —  that  is  too  easy,  and  it  is  the  only  way  to  win 
their  kindness  in  return  —  but  to  every  being  who  may 
take  comfort  from  your  kindness.  A  mere  smile  may  save 
a  soul  from  despair.  Never  be  avaricious  of  your  smiling, 
of  your  regards,  towards  people  who  are  in  trouble.  Some 
powerful  men  can  bring  help  by  their  assistance,  their 
money,  their  material  strength ;  a  young  man  or  a  young 
woman  can  do  still  more  by  giving  his  or  her  sympathy. 
Do  not  be  shy,  do  not  be  afraid  of  being  ridiculous ;  a  man 
who  does  the  good  work  which  the  others  will  not  do  is  often 
ridiculed  at  first,  but  not  for  long ;  express  your  good  will 
as  you  can,  with  the  right  words  or  with  no  words,  as  long 
as  you  do  not  keep  it  for  yourself  alone. 

Be  true  and  faithful ;  it  is  so  easy  to  lie ;  but  remember 
that  we  cannot  deceive  twice  the  same  friend ;  we  have  to 
change  him ;  and,  at  length,  we  find  no  more  friends  to 
listen  to  us;  they  all  know  they  cannot  trust  our  word. 
Never  speak  against  your  past  friend;  keep  silent  and 
reserved  about  his  fault,  which  may  be  yours;  otherwise 
the  new  friend  will  find  that  you  can  change  and  he  will 
not  feel  safe  with  you. 

Never  be  violent,  except  to  resist  a  violent  aggression, 
if  you  see  no  other  honorable  issue.  That  is  the  great 
effort  for  you !  Violence  is  such  a  temptation  for  a  strong 
boy  and  even  for  a  little  boy!  I  should  say  even  for  a 
little  girl  .  .  .  but  the  temptation  does  not  last  for  her; 
she  soon  discovers  that  violence  does  not  pay  ;  and  she 
looks  for  other  ways  of  maintaining  her  rights.  She  actually 
finds  these  ways.  Violence  seems,  at  first,  so  innocent,  so 
easy,  so  natural ;  a  mere  application  of  our  forces ;  some 
times  a  precious  help ;  a  good  blow !  Is  it  not  a  good  les 
son  for  a  bad  boy?  Yes,  indeed,  but  a  bad  example,  too ! 


NEW  YEAR'S  LETTER  527 

Violence  is  not  the  way  to  teach  Justice  and  Right.  Sup 
pose  your  teachers  would  use  it  to  illustrate  their  explana 
tions  to  you.  .  .  .  There  is  no  limit  to  violence.  Violence 
has  no  end.  It  is  never  a  solution.  The  violent  boy  has 
to  be,  every  day,  stronger  than  his  comrade ;  but  he  cannot 
be  as  strong  as  all  his  comrades  together. 

I  have  always  found  that  violence  leads  to  domination 
and  that  domination  does  not  last,  cannot  last ;  the  end  of 
it  is,  sooner  or  later,  collapse  and  humiliation.  This  is 
true  for  a  boy,  still  more  for  a  man,  still  more  for  a  nation. 

Never  a  nation,  even  a  great  Empire,  could  last  by 
domination;  what  they  are  so  proud  to  call  " imperial 
ism"  has  been  and  will  be  always  the  beginning  of  the  end ; 
it  is  now  a  well-known  fever,  an  archaic  illness,  a  backward 
policy.  When  the  majority  of  the  people  of  a  great  coun 
try  stop  their  work  and  think  only  of  armaments,  conquests 
and  ostentation,  then  it  means  they  are  isolating  and  weaken 
ing  themselves ;  instead  of  friends,  they  have  nobody  in  the 
world  to  support  them ;  far  from  it ;  conceited,  suspected 
everywhere,  they  become  a  danger  for  all  the  other  nations. 
Far  from  being  stronger,  they  feel  dissatisfied  and  angry. 
They  are  no  longer  so  good  at  work ;  their  intellectual  and 
moral  progress,  their  industry,  their  genius  and  consequently 
their  production,  artistic,  scientific,  economic,  go  lessening 
every  year,  compared  with  other  nations.  They  cannot 
even  understand  the  reasons  of  their  inferiority ;  they  be 
come  jealous  and  sensitive ;  they  see  enemies,  spies,  danger 
everywhere ;  they  may  extend  their  military  forces ;  but 
their  vitality  is  shrinking.  The  slightest  misunderstanding 
with  another  nation  is  sufficient  to  bring  a  war  which  is  not 
a  remedy,  but  the  end  of  all.  A  war,  now,  is  not  what  it 
was  in  the  past,  when  the  brave  chevalier  had  to  face  his 
enemy.  Now  he  has  to  fight  at  such  a  distance  that  he  does 
not  know  and  he  does  not  see  the  other  army ;  he  does  not 
even  know  why  he  is  at  war  and  what  will  be  the  results  of 


528  AMERICA    AND    HER    PROBLEMS 

the  battle,  even  if  victorious.  He  knows  only  that  the 
nation  had  to  pay,  for  the  preparation  of  that  war,  billions 
and  billions  of  dollars  which  were  needed  to  make  the  coun 
try  really  strong  and  prosperous,  surrounded  by  friends 
and  customers,  billions  which  were  wanted  for  making 
good  roads,  restoring  the  forests  and  the  rivers,  building 
railways,  ports,  universities,  hospitals,  museums,  parks 
and  fine  cities.  He  knows  that  the  nation  will  have  to  pay 
still  more  after  the  war,  in  order  to  be  more  and  more  unsafe 
and  isolated. 

You,  American  young  friends,  you  are  a  new  nation,  a 
new,  living  hope  for  the  world.  I  expect  a  great  deal,  for 
the  future  of  the  old  Europe,  from  your  good  will  and  your 
good  faith.  Do  not  imitate  our  faults !  Do  not  become 
too  matter  of  fact,  too  self-confident;  do  not  dream  of 
extending  your  country  which  is  already  —  compared  to 
ours  in  Europe  —  as  large  as  a  continent ;  that  is  my 
Christmas  wish :  keep  young,  keep  kind,  keep  true,  con 
fident  in  your  future,  faithful  to  your  past.  Never  forget 
our  common  ancestors,  our  French  pioneers,  from  La  Salle 
to  Lafayette  and  de  Lesseps,  who  so  willingly  devoted 
their  lives  to  prepare  yours;  it  is  not  enough  for  you  to 
accept  their  legacy,  you  have  to  develop  it,  that  is  to  say, 
to  increase  its  value,  not  its  size ;  you  have  to  make  your 
new  world  so  good  that  it  becomes  an  example  for  our  old 
one.  Yes !  we  need  your  American  initiative  as  you  need 
our  experience.  No  more  than  a  man,  can  a  nation  live 
alone.  Your  progress  will  stimulate  our  progress;  your 
faults  would  stop  our  way  as  well  as  yours. 

And  now,  good-by,  dear  friends ;  no,  good  morning  — 
never  good-by  —  we  never  die  as  long  as  we  leave  our 
work  behind  us ;  good  morning  to  you ;  happy  day,  happy 
New  Year.  .  .  .  The  sky  has  not  changed,  the  cold  winter 
prepares  a  mild  spring ;  enjoy  your  life,  enjoy  your  day ; 


529 

consider  your  teachers  as  your  friends;  listen  to  them; 
think  of  them ;  speak  of  them ;  you  will  make  them  happier 
and  better;  and  you  will  then  feel  yourselves  in  better 
spirits  to  play  your  fascinating  baseball,  to  ride  your 
bicycle  or  your  horse,  to  drive  your  motor  car  (if  you  can 
get  one) ,  to  paddle  your  canoe ;  to  swim  in  the  deep  waters, 
to  walk,  to  run,  to  climb,  to  breathe.  .  .  .  Don't  forget  to 
learn  French,  in  order  to  come  and  see  me  and  to  make 
new  friends  in  the  old  world ;  be  happy,  be  gay,  be  strong, 
in  order  to  help  any  one  who  needs  your  health  and  your 
strength.  The  more  you  help  other  people,  the  more  you 
will  find  everywhere  assistance  and  sympathy.  The  more 
your  country  will  appear  friendly  to  other  nations,  the 
greater  and  happier  she  will  be. 

There  is  the  fruit  of  all  my  political  experience ;  that  is 
what  I  would  call  the  modern  wisdom  of  men  as  well  as  of 
nations. 

D'ESTOURNELLES  DE  CONSTANT. 


2  M 


INDEX 


Absolutism,  opposition  to,  spread  by 
Russian  and  Polish  students  in  Amer 
ica,  257. 

Adler,  Felix,  and  the  Ethical  Culture 
Society,  385. 

Advertising  of  churches,  385. 

Africa,  reminders  of,  in  southern  United 
States,  23;  as  a  future  competitor 
of  United  States,  468. 

Agriculture,  in  California,  45-46;  Cali 
fornia  crops,  52;  in  Oregon,  90;  dry 
farming  system,  98-100;  about 
Kansas  City,  145-146 ;  a  model  farm, 
406-407 ;  in  provinces  of  Canada, 
451-454. 

Air,  blessings  of  pure,  292. 

Alamo  massacre,  29. 

Alaska,  the  future  of,  84-85. 

Alaska- Yukon-Pacific  Exhibition,  Seat 
tle,  82-83. 

Alberta,  population  of,  449. 

Almy,  Francis,  at  Buffalo,  442. 

Alsace-Lorraine  question,  the,  216-217; 
Americans  and  the,  217-218. 

American  Civic  Association,  296. 

Anderson,  Hendrik  C.,  architect,  16. 

Animals,  raising  of  domestic,  in  Cali 
fornia,  46;  in  Rock  Creek  Park, 
Washington,  298-299;  in  Canada, 
452.  _ 

Annapolis,  Naval  Academy  at,  320,  492. 

Apple  raising,  in  Washington  and  Ore 
gon,  91-92 ;  lessons  in,  to  be  learned 
from  America,  403. 

Arbitration  treaties,  made  by  President 
Taft,  309-310. 

Architecture,  of  New  York  City,  5-6; 
in  Washington,  D.  C.,  282. 

Arizona,  size  and  desert  land,  42 ;  woman 
suffrage  in,  72. 

Arkansas  River,  104. 


Armament,  increase  of  naval,  in  United 
States,  discouraged,  484  ff. 

Armed  peace  system,  disadvantages  of, 
to  European  nations,  460  ff . ;  America 
warned  against,  476-477. 

Army,  the  American,  12,  25,  35-36,  136; 
figures  and  present  status  of,  480- 
482 ;  militia  viewed  as  the  real,  482- 
484. 

Art,  in  Mrs.  Potter  Palmer's  house,  Chi 
cago,  242 ;  position  of  Americans 
concerning,  244-245;  process  of 
formation  of  natural  taste  in  Amer 
ica,  303 ;  in  American  museums,  405. 

Austin  University,  visit  to,  24. 

Australia,  natural  resources  and  com 
petition  of,  with  United  States,  468. 

Austria,  effect  upon,  of  European  War, 
230. 

Automatic  telephone,  Portland,  Oregon, 
94. 

Automobiles,  in  Kansas  City,  149-150. 

Aviation,  peace  and,  273-274. 

B 

Bacon,  Robert,  17,  325;  resignation  of 
Paris  embassy  to  become  Fellow  of 
Harvard,  330. 

Baker,  James  H.,  president  of  Boulder 
University,  109. 

Baltimore,  visit  to,  17. 

Banquets,  women  at,  152-153. 

Barbers  and  barber  shops,  250-252. 

Bargy,  Henry,  332 ;   quoted,  336. 

Barrett,  John,  work  as  director-general 
of  Pan-American  Bureau,  15.  „ 

Baseball,  American  national  game,  180; 
exposition  of,  204-206. 

Battleships,  foolishness  of  building  too 
big,  487,  495 ;  helplessness  against 
submarines,  mines,  and  torpedoes, 
487-488 ;  personnel  of  crews  of  Amer- 


532 


INDEX 


ican,  492  n. ;  lessons  concerning,  to 
be  learned  from  European  War,  495  ff . 

Beauty,  religion  of,  in  America,  292. 

Beet-sugar  production  in  Utah,  99. 

Benoit-LeVy,  G.,  works  by,  on  city-plan- 
ning  questions,  294,  295  n. 

Berkeley  University,  coeducation  at,  55  ; 
account  of  visit  to,  55-57. 

Berlin,  M.,  quoted  on  folly  of  too  big 
naval  ships,  487 ;  on  effect  of  torpe 
does  in  naval  warfare,  488. 

Bigelow,  John,  44;  work  for  children, 
412. 

Birds,  in  United  States,  180;  in  Rock 
Creek  Park,  Washington,  298-299; 
leagues  for  protection  of,  299. 

Blackbirds,  180,  299. 

Bleriot,  aviator,  at  Yale  with  the  author, 
335. 

Bluebird,  the,  seen  in  Rock  Creek  Park, 
Washington,  299 ;  suitable  as  a  sym 
bol  for  a  society  with  an  ideal,  299- 
300. 

Books,  American,  249-250;  on  city- 
planning  questions,  295  n. 

Boston,  the  Symphony  Orchestra,  246; 
headquarters  of  Christian  Science 
religion,  375,  381,  383;  Phillips 
Brooks  House,  391-392  ;  prosperity 
joined  with  idealism  in,  403-404. 

Boulder  University,  Easter  Sunday  ad 
dress  and  reception  at,  108-110. 

Bracq,  M.,  at  Vassar  College,  331. 

Brashear,  John  A.,  epitaph  by,  412. 

Brest,  port  of,  lack  of  modern  facilities 
at,  459-460. 

British  Columbia,  population  of,  449. 

Britt,  Gustave  T.,  Napoleon  of  house- 
movers,  439,  440. 

Brookings,  Robert,  156;  as  a  represent 
ative  of  American  idealism,  172-173; 
personal  appearance,  173;  home,  180; 
public  interests,  182-183. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  quoted,  255;  on  moral 
and  social  work  of  American  churches, 
386 ;  commemoration  of  memory  of, 
391-392. 

Brown,  Glen,  history  of  Washington  by, 
quoted,  289. 

Bryan,  W.  J.,  home  of,  at  Lincoln,  Ne 
braska,  137-138;  meeting  with,  in 
Chicago,  239-240;  organization  of 
arbitration  supported  by,  344;  sig 


nificance  of  appointment  as  secretary 
of  state,  520. 

Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  a  transportation  center, 
431-432;  moving  of  house  at,  439- 
441 ;  automatic  unloading  of  ore  at, 
442-443. 

Bunau-Varilla,  Philippe,  resurrection  of 
Panama  Canal  project  by,  503. 

Butler,  Nicholas  Murray,  17,  307 ;  weight 
attached  to  views  of,  329 ;  on  religious 
instruction  at  Columbia  University, 
336;  American  International  Con 
ciliation  branch  founded  by,  337-338. 

Butter,  made  in  San  Francisco,  52. 


California,  distances  in,  43-44;  the 
agricultural  problem,  45-46;  ques 
tion  of  yellow  immigration,  47  ff . ; 
number  of  Japanese  in,  49 ;  a  garden 
land,  50-51,  54;  orchards,  51;  wine, 
51-52;  dairy  products,  52;  petro 
leum,  52-53;  tourist  traffic,  53;  wo 
men,  54 ;  coeducation  at  universities, 
55-57;  campaign  for  votes  for 
women,  59-72;  earthquakes,  167- 
168;  Christian  Science  churches, 
379- 

Cambon,  Jules,  as  ambassador  at  Wash 
ington,  18;  at  interview  with  Presi 
dent  Roosevelt,  307 ;  assistance  of,  in 
interesting  United  States  in  Hague 
tribunal,  307,  308,  309. 

Canada,  competition  of,  with  United 
States,  444  ff ;  advantages  possessed 
by,  446-447 ;  a  field  for  modern  ex 
periments,  447 ;  size  and  characteris 
tics  of  population,  448-450 ;  progress 
of  cities,  450;  agriculture  in,  451- 
454;  tracing  the  reasons  for  pros 
perity  and  progress  of,  461  ff. ;  Si 
beria  compared  to,  470-471. 

Canals,  transportation  on,  427  ff. ;  as 
auxiliaries  to  railroads,  428;  the 
Erie,  Ohio,  and  other,  429;  out 
stripped  by  railroads,  430 ;  in  Canada, 
457- 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  peace  palace  erected 
at  Hague  by,  309 ;  work  as  a  public 
benefactor,  401-402. 

Cathedral  Spires,  in  Garden  of  the  Gods, 
106. 


INDEX 


533 


Catholics,  position  of,  in  America,  rela 
tive  to  the  Church,  373 ;  revolt  of 
French  religious  spirit  misunder 
stood  by,  393 ;  philanthropic  and 
social  activities  of,  in  France,  397. 

Celery  from  Utah,  99. 

Chamber  of  Commerce,  Denver,  115-117. 

Chassaignac,  M.,  21. 

Chateaubriand,  comparison  of  Washing 
ton's  work  and  Napoleon's,  311. 

Chicago,  latest  developments  in,  233  ff. ; 
bustle  and  noise,  237-238;  Union 
League  Club  luncheon,  239-241 ; 
American  clear-sightedness  and  inde 
pendence  manifested  in,  240 ;  Sunday 
in,  241 ;  Mrs.  Potter  Palmer's  resi 
dence,  242 ;  meeting  at  the  Orches 
tral  Hall,  242-244;  the  Sunday 
Evening  Club,  244;  musical  pur 
suits,  246;  barber  shops,  250-252; 
competition  of,  with  Pittsburgh  in 
manufacturing,  426-427. 

Chicago,  University  of,  252-254. 

Children,  supremacy  of,  in  United  States, 
267  ;  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  283-284; 
leagues  of,  against  dirt  in  cities,  294 ; 
institutions  for  abnormal,  320 ;  meet 
ing  of  school  children  in  New  York, 
332-333 ;  philanthropic  work  for, 
407  ff . ;  teaching  to  play,  408-409 ; 
need  for  space,  air,  nature,  quiet,  409 ; 
Playground  Associations  for,  409- 
416. 

China,  students  from,  abroad,  49-50; 
revolutionary  ideas  in,  258  ff. ;  ad 
miration  and  confidence  felt  for  stu 
dents  from,  in  America,  258 ;  rela 
tions  which  Western  countries  should 
establish  with,  260-261. 

Chinese,  problem  of  immigration  into 
United  States,  47  ff . 

Choate,  Joseph  H.,  at  Hague  Congress, 
179- 

Choate,  Rufus,  on  plan  of  Washington, 
286. 

Chouteau  family,  exploits  in  Louisiana, 
160-161. 

Christian  Science,  churches  of,  in  United 
States  and  abroad,  375,  378-379; 
discussion  of,  376  ff . ;  description  of 
a  meeting,  377;  account  of  origin, 
37Q-38o;  cathedral  of,  in  Boston, 
383 ;  question  of  final  outcome,  384. 


Christian  Science  Monitor,  excellence  as  a 
newspaper,  381-383. 

Christmas,  open-air-concert  celebration, 
at  San  Francisco,  347-348. 

Church  in  America.     See  Religion. 

Churches,  in  Seattle,  81,  398-401 ;  edu 
cational  mission  of,  81,  336-337. 

Cincinnati,  visit  to,  264  ff . ;  prosperity 
and  importance  as  a  business  center, 
270-271 ;  addresses  at  banquet,  271- 
272. 

Cities,  disadvantages  of  American,  5 ; 
gigantic  character,  75 ;  separation 
of  business  and  residential  sections, 
as  illustrated  by  St.  Louis,  164; 
lack  of  terminal  facilities  for  rail 
roads,  189-190,  455 ;  modern  art  of 
planning,  290,  291-292 ;  progress 
made  in  life  in,  292-293 ;  cleanliness 
necessary  to  charm,  294 ;  the  crusade 
against  dirt  in,  294-296;  population 
and  progress  of  Canadian,  450. 

City  planning,  Washington  an  example 
of,  291. 

Cleveland,  Ohio,  present  size  and  bril 
liant  future,  270;  a  competitor  of 
Pittsburgh  in  steel  manufacture, 
443- 

Cliff  Drive,  Kansas  City,  151-152. 

Climate,  of  California,  52 ;  varieties  of, 
in  America,  165-166,  254;  of  Canada, 

447-  m 

Clubs,  international,  in  America,  207, 
256-257 ;  German,  in  Milwaukee, 
212;  musical,  212,  213,  246;  spread 
of  revolutionary  ideas  aided  by  in 
ternational,  256-257. 

Coeducation,  in  Western  universities, 
55  ;  at  University  of  Wisconisn,  197; 
why  possible  in  United  States,  252 ; 
at  University  of  Chicago,  253-254; 
some  disadvantages  of,  254 ;  general 
in  the  West  but  losing  ground  in  the 
East,  330;  advantages  to  students, 

330-33I- 

College,  the  American,  319-320. 

Colorado,  woman  suffrage  in,  72 ;  sce 
nery,  103-106 ;  the  Indians  and  their 
fate,  106-108;  Boulder  University 
and  Easter  Sunday,  108-110;  Den 
ver  banquet,  111-115;  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  Denver,  115-117;  news 
paper  attacks  on  public  men,  1 1 7-119 ; 


534 


INDEX 


magnificence  of  capitol,   no;     visit 

to  legislature,  119-123 ;  visit  to  Chief 

Justice,  123-124. 
Colorado  River,  103-104. 
Colorado  Springs,  description  of,  105. 
Columbia  River,  beauty  of,  94. 
Columbia  River  valley,  93-94. 
Columbia    University,    Commencement 

Day  at,  328;    religious  toleration  at, 

336. 
Columbus,    Ohio,    musical    societies   at, 

246;      importance  as  a  commercial 

center,  270. 
Competition,   United  States  threatened 

with  universal,  467  ff. 
Consuls,  French,  19. 
Convents,  closing  of,  in  France,  395. 
Cooking,  Calif ornian,  52. 
Coolie  immigration,  47  ff . 
Cornel  trees,  Rock  Creek  Park,  298. 
Cornet-playing  by  a  woman,  114-115. 
Cosmopolitan  Student,  The,  257 ;    article 

in,  quoted,  258. 

Cotton,  exported  from  Seattle,  86 ;  mo 
nopoly  enjoyed  by,  in  United  States, 

SH- 
Craighead,    Dr.,    president    of    Tulane 

University,  22. 
Crest,  Paul,  architect  of  Pan-American 

building,  Washington,  15. 
Cuba,  qualities  of  negroes  in,  365-366; 

future  competition  of,   with  United 

States,  467-468. 


D 

Dairy  products,  California,  52. 
Daniels,   Josephus,    report   by,    quoted, 

486  n. 

Dardanelles,    conclusions    from    opera 
tions  in,  in  European  War,  497. 
Davis,  G.  W.,  article  by,  cited,  508. 
Davis,     Payne,     apostle    of     Christian 

Science,  377. 
Davis,   W.   M.,   scientific  excursion  of, 

99-100. 

Deforestation  in  America,  88-89. 
De  Lesseps,  Charles,  heroism  of  conduct, 

501-502. 
De  Lesseps,  Ferdinand,  memories  of,  in 

Chicago,  240-241 ;     wrongs  inflicted 

upon,  501-502. 
Demangeon,  A.,  quoted,  433. 


Denmark,  valiant  part  taken  by,  in 
economic  conflict,  474-475. 

Denver,  visit  to,  110-124;  musical  ac 
tivities,  246. 

Diaz,  Porfirio,  26;  results  of  dictator 
ship  of,  27-28,  36,  37,  38. 

Dietitian,  office  of,  in  American  families, 
322-323,  381. 

Dining  cars,  excellence  of  food,  135-136. 

Diplomacy,  French,  18-20. 

Diplomatic  corps,  Washington,  influence 
on  social  circles,  311. 

Distances,  American  and  European 
ideas  of,  42-44. 

District  of  Columbia,  political  position 
and  government  of,  281. 

Doggerbank  affair,  129,  494. 

Downer  College,  210. 

Drainage  Canal,  Chicago,  235-236. 

Dreadnought  fever,  contagiousness  of, 
464-466. 

Drink  question,  women  and  the,  262- 
264. 

Dry  farming,  system  of,    98-100. 

Duluth,  origins,  170;  importance  as 
a  port,  191-192 ;  combined  use 
of  trains  and  boats  at,  422-423 ;  a 
competitor  of  Pittsburgh  in  steel 
manufacture,  433. 


Eagle,  question  of  suitability  as  a  sym 
bol  for  United  States,  300,  313. 

Earle,  Mrs.  C.  W.,  works  on  city-plan- 
ning  questions  by,  295  n. 

Early  rising  in  America  and  in  France, 
206. 

Earthquakes  in  California,  50-51,  167- 
168. 

Easter  Sunday  at  Boulder  University, 
108-110. 

Eddy,  Mary  Baker,  founder  of  Chris 
tian  Science  religion,  375,  376,  379- 
380;  policy  of  Christian  Science 
Monitor  laid  down  by,  382. 

Education,  attention  paid  to,  in  Kansas 
City,  147;  comparative  importance 
of  politics  and,  in  America,  198,  201  ; 
as  an  ideal  in  America,  316-317; 
usefulness  an  object  of,  317 ;  freedom 
of,  318-319;  classes  of  establish 
ments  for,  319-320, 


INDEX 


535 


Educators,  political  freedom  of  American, 
337-338. 

Elections  in  United  States,  306. 

Electric-lighting  system,  Seattle,  76. 

Electric  tramways,  transformations  in 
modern  life  due  to,  391-392. 

Eliot,  Charles  W.,  weight  attached  to 
views  of,  329;  conception  of  reli 
gion,  336-337- 

El  Paso,  Texas,  26. 

Emerson  Union  for  Ideal  Culture,  296. 

England,  suffragettes  in,  66;  travelers 
from,  in  Paris,  172. 

English,  attitude  toward  learning  foreign 
languages,  174-175. 

Epitaph  by  Dr.  Brashe  r,  412. 

Eppendorff,  John  G.,  442. 

Erie  Canal,  429. 

European  War,  patriotic  devotion  and 
public  spirit  of  women  during,  66  n. ; 
Germany  and  the,  208  n.,  placing 
the  responsibility  for,  223  ff . ;  re 
sults  to  be  foreseen,  226-232;  les 
sons  concerning  naval  armaments  to 
be  learned  from,  495  ff . 

Exchange  teachers  and  students,  17-18. 

Explorers,  early  French,  in  Louisiana, 
157-161 ;  monuments  to,  434-435. 


Factories,  scientific  management  of,  404. 

Faith  of  Americans,  370. 

Family  life,  in  France,  63-66;  in  Amer 
ica,  306. 

Farm,  a  model,  406-407. 

Farms.     See  Agriculture. 

Fashions,  Parisian,  in  America,  20-21,  195. 

Finley,  Carlos,  discoverer  of  malarial- 
fever  microbe,  505. 

Finley,  John  H.,  interest  in  Franco- 
American  relations  in  the  past,  169- 
170. 

Flag,  following  the,  when  in  good  hands, 
112-114. 

Floods,  American  attitude  toward,  166- 
167. 

Flowers.     See  Gardening. 

Food  on  dining  cars,  135-136. 

Football,  as  physical  and  moral  train 
ing,  206. 

Foreign  languages,  stimulating  Ameri 
cans  to  learn,  176-179. 


Forsee,  George  H.,  154. 

Fort  Duquesne,  421,  423. 

Fortier,  A.,  21. 

France,  bonds  between  America  and, 
8-9,  169-170;  Americans'  love  for, 
9;  resentment  of  spirit  of  initiative 
in,  1 8,  93;  diplomacy  of,  18-20; 
lack  of  news  from,  in  American  papers, 
20;  reminders  of,  in  New  Orleans, 
21-22;  called  "la  belle  France,"  23; 
interests  of,  in  Mexico,  28;  colonial 
expansion,  and  dangers,  35 ;  Chinese 
students  in,  50 ;  young  Americans 
in,  57-59;  status  of  women,  62-66; 
openings  for  workers  and  profes 
sional  people,  in  America,  88;  scien 
tific  agriculture  in,  89;  comparison 
of  farming  methods  in  America  and 
in,  90-93 ;  as  the  sower  of  seed  in  the 
form  of  humane  ideas,  139 ;  an  Amer 
ican  traveler's  views  of,  130-143; 
horses  imported  to  America  from,  146- 
147;  American  students  of  archi 
tecture  in,  151 ;  memories  of,  aroused 
by  arrival  at  St.  Louis,  155-156; 
idealism  of,  and  that  of  America, 
171;  spirit  of,  remaining  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  171-172;  differ 
ence  between  railroad  building  in, 
and  in  America,  188;  early  rising  in, 
206;  universities  of,  avoided  by 
America  as  examples,  213;  disasters 
suffered  by,  but  not  decadence,  214- 
215;  famous  savants,  artists,  and 
men  of  action,  215;  attitude  pro 
duced  in,  by  German  militarism,  216- 
217,  220-222;  influence  of,  on  art 
and  music  in  America,  244,  246; 
position  in  European  War,  274  n. ; 
extermination  of  birds  in,  298-299; 
gratitude  shown  to,  in  Washington, 
305;  effect  of  wars  of,  in  keeping 
teachers  at  home,  324;  significance 
of  names  of  political  parties  in,  345 ; 
reason  for  English  triumph  over,  in 
the  New  World,  352-353 ;  discussion 
of  revolt  of  French  religious  spirit 
in,  393 ;  painful  period  of  seculariza 
tion  of  religion  in,  394~396;  apple 
raising  in,  as  compared  with  America, 
403 ;  works  of  art  from,  in  America, 
405 ;  need  of  transportation  facilities 
in,  424-425 ;  monuments  to  explorers 


536 


INDEX 


from,  434-435;  agricultural  methods 
in,  compared  with  those  in  Canada, 
453-454;  contrasted  with  United 
States  and  Canada  in  manner  of  carry 
ing  out  public  works,  458-460 ;  draw 
backs  to,  of  living  in  a  state  of  armed 
peace,  460-461. 

French,  colony  of,  in  San  Francisco,  45. 

French  language,  stimulating  Americans 
to  learn  the,  176-179;  spoken  by 
foreign  representatives  at  Hague 
congresses,  178-179;  lack  of  French 
teachers  of,  in  America,  324-325; 
taught  by  Germans,  Swiss,  and  Bel 
gians,  325-326. 

French  Revolution,  spirit  of,  in  United 
States,  386-388. 

Frissel,  Hollis  Burke,  on  the  negro  prob 
lem,  366-367. 

Fruit  raising,  in  California,  51 ;  in  Amer 
ica,  403-404;  in  Ontario,  451. 


Galveston,  Texas,  prosperity  of,  24; 
progress  after  flood,  167. 

Gardening,  advance  in  art  of,  in  United 
States,  300-301 ;  simplification  of, 
302. 

Garden  of  the  Gods,  the,  106. 

Germany,  interests  of,  in  Mexico,  28; 
attitude  of  people  toward  European 
War,  208  n. ;  well-deserved  success 
of,  212-215;  price  paid  by,  for  vic 
tories,  215;  brutalizing  effect  of 
triumph  of  mere  force,  215;  idealism 
of,  stifled  by  militarism,  216;  the 
Alsace-Lorraine  question,  216-217; 
disgust  of  the  whole  world  with  mili 
tarism  of,  218-219;  results  to,  of 
European  War,  230-232 ;  teachers 
from,  in  American  universities,  324. 

Gibbons,  Cardinal,  revolt  of  French  re 
ligious  spirit  condemned  by,  393. 

Gide,  Charles,  works  on  municipal  clean 
liness  by,  294. 

Gillet,  Louis,  quoted  concerning  L'En- 
fant,  289. 

Ginn,  Edwin,  philanthropic  work  of, 
402. 

Girard,  Etienne,  statue  of,  in  Philadel 
phia,  9. 

Goethals,  Colonel,  work  at  Panama,  504. 


Gold  mining,  Western,  95-97 ;  in  Alaska, 

45i. 

Good  will,  American,  181. 
Gouin,    Sir   Lomer,    prime   minister   of 

province  of  Quebec,  457. 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  object  of, 

to  increase  pension  list,  515-516. 
Grand  Central  Terminal,  New  York,  6, 

190. 
Great  Britain,  army  of,  25 ;   interests  in 

Mexico,  28 ;  as  a  competitor  of  United 

States,  472. 
Great  Lakes,  frieght  traffic  on,  191-194, 

235. 

Great  Northern  Railroad,  85. 
Greek  type  found  in  American  college 

students,  332. 
Griffon  monument,  La  Salle  Creek,  434- 

435- 

H 

Hague  tribunal,  work  of,  40-41 ;  part 
taken  by  United  States,  138-139; 
American  linguists  at  meetings,  178- 
179;  President  Roosevelt's  attitude 
toward,  307-308;  feelings  of  repre 
sentatives  at  first  meetings,  390. 

Hale,  Edward  Everett,  'on  American 
attitude  toward  religion,  387-388. 

Hampton  Institute,  school  for  negroes, 
366. 

Harbors,  inadequacy  of  modern,  4. 

Harriman,  E.  H.,  as  a  public  benefactor, 
296. 

Havre,  inadequacy  of  harbor,  4. 

Hay,  John,  and  the  Hague  tribunal,  308 ; 
on  throwing  open  Panama  Canal  to 
every  nation  on  the  same  terms, 
510. 

Hay-Pauncefote  treaty,  quoted,  511. 

Hearst  publications,  the,  31-32,  465. 

Hebrard,  Ernest  M.,  architect,  16. 

Hennepin,  Father,  monument  to,  435. 

Hepburn,  Barton,  325. 

Highroads,  lack  of  sufficient  number,  in 
America,  94 ;  system  of  national,  434. 

Hill,  David  Jayne,  179,  329. 

Hill,  James  J.,  85,  186;  picture  gallery 
of,  195;  "Highways of  Progress  "  by, 
-quoted,  195-196;  cited  on  compara 
tive  growth  of  railroads  and  traffic, 
426. 

Hill,  Samuel,  94- 


INDEX 


537 


Hobson,   Richmond   P.,   advocate  of  a 

greater  navy,  508. 
Rolls,  Frederick  W.,  178,  307. 
Homes,  in  France,  63-66  ;  American,  306. 
Horses,  importation  of  French,  146-147. 
Horticulture,    progress    in,    in    United 

States,  300-303. 

Hospitality,  American,  180-181. 
House,  E.  M.,  24. 
Houses,   modern  moving  methods,   76- 

78,  439-441- 
Houston,  D.  F.,  chancellor  of  St.  Louis 

University,  182,  183. 
Houston,  Texas,  24. 
Howard,  E.,  works  by,  on  city-planning 

questions,  295  n. 
Hudson  Bay  district,  proposed  railroads 

in,  457-458. 

Huerta,  General,  government  of,  37-38. 
Hutchinson,  Mr.,  gold  miner,  95-96. 


Idaho,  woman  suffrage  in,  72. 

Idealism,  French  and  English,  170-171  ; 
a  representative  type  of  American, 
172-173;  contest  between  militar 
ism  and,  in  Germany,  216;  as  an 
impelling  force  in  United  States,  315 
ff. ;  in  education  in  America,  316- 
317;  conjunction  of  prosperity  and, 
403;  of  United  States  as  a  whole 
contrasted  with  imperialism  of  its 
government,  519. 

Immigration,  conditions  and  statistics 
of,  517-518. 

Impatience,  the  typical  American,  shown 
in  treatment  of  Indians,  353. 

Imperialism,  German,  220-222;  vicious 
circle  of  reasoning  based  on,  497- 
498;  growth  of,  in  United  States, 
shown  by  fortifying  of  Panama  Canal, 
507;  development  in  United  States, 
519-521;  a  backward  policy,  a  sign 
of  the  beginning  of  the  end,  525. 

Indians,  thoughts  suggested  by  fate  of, 
106-108;  primitive  music  of,  248- 
249;  Lake  Mohonk  conferences 
concerning,  351 ;  consideration  of 
problem  of,  352-358;  blood  of,  found 
in  present-day  North  Americans, 
357-358;  reaction  in  favor  of,  358; 
numbers  in  United  States,  358. 


Initiative,  hostility  of  French  govern 
ment  to,  1 8,  93 ;  spirit  of,  in  education 
in  America,  318;  developed  in  Amer 
ican  college  students,  334-335;  apo 
theosis  of,  at  Pittsburgh,  423-424 ; 
spirit  of,  shown  in  France  in  past 
forty  years,  472. 

Inland  navigation,  in  United  States, 
427-433;  in  Canada,  456-457. 

Insects,  American,  166. 

International  Arbitration  Conferences 
at  Lake  Mohonk,  338. 

International  clubs  in  United  States, 
207,  256-257. 

International  Conciliation  Society,  13; 
branch  in  America,  337-338. 

International  Harvester  Company  works, 
Chicago,  234. 

International  News  Service,  31. 

International  relations,  American  need 
of  increased  knowledge  in,  165. 

Ireland,  Archbishop,  186;  speech  by, 
in  French,  195;  reason  why  never 
made  a  cardinal,  373  ;  clergy  and  sem 
inary  of,  384-385. 

Irrigation,  in  California,  52  ;  in  Utah,  98- 
99. 

Italy,  as  a  competitor  for  the  world's 
markets,  472. 


James,  William,  quotation  from,  182. 

Japan,  attitude  of,  toward  emigration 
of  workers,  47-48 ;  students  from,  in 
United  States,  48,  126-127;  possibil 
ity  of  war  with  United  States,  54,  74, 
125-133;  entente  cordiale  advocated 
by  Colonel  Thompson,  269. 

Japanese,  as  servants  in  California,  45 ; 
problem  of  immigration  into  United 
States,  47  ff . ;  numbers  of,  in  Cali 
fornia,  Washington,  and  whole  United 
States,  49. 

Jokes,  American,  186-187. 

Joliet,  Illinois,  disadvantages  of,  236. 

Jones  family,  St.  Louis,  180. 

Jordan,  David  Starr,  55 ;  description  of 
San  Francisco  earthquake,  167-168. 

Judges,  recall  of,  514-515. 

Judson,  Harry  Pratt,  president  of  Uni 
versity  of  Chicago,  252-253. 

Juneau,  Solomon,  212. 


538 


INDEX 


Jusserand,  M.,  as  ambassador  at  Wash 
ington,  1 8,  19. 


Kansas,  woman  suffrage  in,  69,  72. 

Kansas  City,  another  "hub  of  the  uni 
verse,"  144;  prosperity,  144-145; 
an  agricultural  center,  145-146; 
French  horses  at,  146-147;  banks, 
schools,  and  labor  conditions,  147- 
148;  school-teachers,  148;  news 
papers,  149 ;  automobile  dangers,  149- 
150;  park  and  boulevards,  150-152; 
Missouri  River  at,  152;  Knife  and 
Fork  Club,  153-154. 

Kindergartens  in  America,  320. 

Knox,  secretary  of  state  under  President 
Taft,  310. 

Kubelik,  playing  of,  at  open-air  Christ 
mas  concert  in  San  Francisco,  248. 


Labor,  scarcity  of,  in  United  States,  12, 
22,  44,  193;  wages  paid,  44-45,  148, 
193- 

Lafayette,  statues  of,  9,  18,  305;  memo 
ries  of,  in  American  cities,  271. 

Lafayette  College,  328-329. 

Lake  Mohonk,  International  Arbitra 
tion  Conferences  at,  338 ;  account  of 
Smiley  brothers'  work  at,  338-345. 

La  Salle,  Cavalier  de,  memories  of,  156, 
IS7-I58,  159,  434,  435- 

La  Salle  Creek,  trip  to,  434-435. 

Ledoux,  Mr.,  mining  engineer,  170. 

Legislative  system,  of  Colorado,  120; 
of  Wisconsin,  198-201. 

L'Enfant,  Pierre  Charles,  career  of,  285- 
289. 

Liberia,  Republic  of,  failure  as  a  solution 
of  the  negro  problem,  363. 

Liberty,  dangers  accompanying  planting 
of  seeds  of,  in  foreign  students  in 
United  States,  207-208. 

Lincoln,  Nebraska,  visit  to,  136-144. 

Literature,  American,  249-250. 

Live  stock,  raising  of,  in  California,  46  ; 
in  Washington  and  Oregon,  90-91. 

Los  Angeles,  distances  in,  43. 

Louisiana,  early  French  explorers  in,  157- 
161 ;  secured  to  France  by  La  Salle, 
158;  selling  of,  162. 


Low,  Seth,  178,  307,  328,  329;  model 
farm  owned  by,  406-407. 

Lowell,  A.  Lawrence,  president  of  Har 
vard  University,  329. 

Loyson,  Father  Hyacinth  e,  392. 

Luncheon,  the  American,  239. 

Lynch  law  in  America,  361. 


M 

McCormick,  Cyrus,  237. 

Machinery,  fanning  by,  in  Oregon,  90; 
in  Canada,  453-454. 

"Madame  Sherry"  company,  87-88. 

Madero,  murder  of,  37. 

Madison,  Wisconsin,  description,  196; 
lake  and  university  at,  196-198. 

Mahan,  Alfred  T.,  warning  against  in 
crease  in  naval  armament,  488. 

Manicurist,  American  type  of,  251-252. 

Manitoba,  population  of,  449. 

Manufactures,  prosperity  in  New  Eng 
land,  404. 

Marburg,  Theodore,  268. 

Margaret  Morrison  School,  Pittsburgh, 
321-322. 

Marquette,  Pere,  157;  remembered  in 
Chicago,  242;  monument  to,  at  St. 
Ignatius  Point,  435. 

Massachusetts,  Sunday  laws  in  early, 
37i. 

Matthews,  Mark  Allison,  minister  of 
Presbyterian  Church,  Seattle,  398- 
401. 

Mediterranean  coast,  the  French,  23. 

Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York,  405. 

Mexico,  the  revolution  in,  n  ff.;  atti 
tude  of  United  States  toward,  11-12  ; 
a  collective  intervention  advised,  13 ; 
dangers  to  United  States  of  war  with, 
14 ;  soldiers  of,  26 ;  results  of  Diaz's 
dictatorship,  27-28;  propaganda  of 
the  Hearst  publications,  30-32  ;  Presi 
dent  Taft's  firmness,  32-33,  483; 
American  party  in,  33-35 ;  President 
Wilson's  policy,  36,  38-39;  murder 
of  President  Madero,  37;  govern 
ment  of  Huerta,  37-38;  moral  in 
tervention  necessary,  39-40. 

Meyer,  George  von  L.,  quoted,  489- 
490. 

Mezes,  President,  Austin  University,  24. 

Michigan,  woman  suffrage  in,  72. 


INDEX 


539 


Middle  class  in  United  States,  304 ;  con 
structive  function  of,  347. 

Middlemen,  necessity  of,  192-193. 

"Might  makes  right"  doctrine,  Ger 
many's,  215-222;  at  Panama,  509. 

Militarism,  German  idealism  stifled  by, 
216 ;  disgust  of  world  in  general  with, 
218-219;  whole  of  modern  democracy 
is  against,  221-222;  the  outcome  of, 
226-232. 

Militia,  company  of,  at  Lincoln,  Ne 
braska,  136;  at  University  of  Wiscon 
sin,  203  ;  real  national  force  in,  when 
properly  organized  and  developed, 
482. 

Milwaukee,  vi^it  to,  209  ff . ;  Lake  com 
merce  at,  210-211;  picturesque  sur 
roundings,  2 1 1 ;  growth  and  popula 
tion,  212;  German  activities  in,  212; 
Socialism  among  Germans,  216;  mu 
sical  interests,  246. 

Mind  cures,  378-389. 

Minneapolis,  visit  to,  186,  187  ff. 

Mississippi  River,  at  St.  Louis,  157;  be 
tween  St.  Paul  and  St.  Louis,  184-186. 

Missouri  River,  failure  of,  at  Kansas 
City,  152. 

Model  farm,  Seth  Low's,  406-407. 

Monet,  Claude,  105  ;  pictures  by,  in  Mrs. 
Potter  Palmer's  collection,  242. 

Montana,  woman  suffrage  in,  72. 

Morgan,  Pierpont,  as  a  public  bene 
factor,  268,  296. 

Mormons,  agricultural  methods  of,  98- 
loo ;  polygamy  among,  100-102  ; 
reason  for  persistence  of  religion  of, 
375- 

Mount  Vernon,  significance  of,  to  Amer 
icans,  304-305. 

Municipal  improvement,  leagues  for, 
294-296. 

Museums,  American,  405. 

Music,  in  America,  203,  246;  success  of 
German  clubs,  212,  213;  at  Orches 
tral  Hall  meeting,  Chicago,  242,  244; 
position  of  Americans  concerning, 
244  ff . ;  why  Americans  need,  245  ; 
love  of  the  people  for,  247  ;  open-air 
concert  at  Christmas,  in  San  Francisco, 
247-248 ;  attempts  to  preserve  primi 
tive  Indian  and  negro  music,  248- 
249;  activities  in,  at  First  Presby 
terian  Church,  Seattle,  399. 


N 

Naval  warfare,  changes  in,  due  to  sub 
marines,  mines,  and  torpedoes,  487- 
488. 

Navy,  of  United  States,  484  ff . ;  folly  of 
too  big  ships,  487,  488;  and  the 
policy  of  intervention,  492-494; 
lessons  of  European  War,  495  ff. ; 
the  Philippines  and  Panama  Canal 
as  pretexts  for  developing  American, 
499-501. 

Negroes,  primitive  music  of,  248-249; 
schools  for  education  of,  320;  prob 
lem  presented  by,  in  United  States, 
358  ff. ;  under  slavery,  350-361  ; 
present  condition  in  the  South,  361- 
363 ;  question  of  place  of,  in  a  white 
democracy,  363-368;  possibility  of 
development,  365-367;  the  most 
ominous  question  for  future  of 
United  States,  369. 

New  France,  memories  of,  155  ff.;  the 
end  of,  163. 

New  Orleans,  reminders  of  France  in, 
20-21. 

Newspapers,  American,  10;  the  Hearst 
publications,  31-32,  465;  attitude 
on  Pacific  coast,  toward  yellow 
immigration,  48-49;  attacks  by, 
on  public  officials  in  Colorado,  118; 
of  Kansas  City,  149;  Sunday,  169; 
in  Chicago,  234;  Christian  Science 
Monitor,  381-383;  agitating  policy 
of  certain  French,  395. 

New  York  City,  bad  planning  of,  5-6; 
effect  of  skyscrapers,  7-8;  an  out- 
of-date  creation,  8 ;  meeting  of  school 
children  in,  323-333;  Metropolitan 
Museum,  405;  foreign-born  in 
habitants,  517. 

New  York  harbor,  inadequacy,  4. 

New  York  State,  status  of  woman  suf 
frage  in,  72. 

Niagara  Falls,  electric-railway  trans 
portation  at,  427;  disciplining  of, 
435-436;  thoughts  suggested  by, 

437- 
Niagara  River,  profanation  of  banks  of, 

445-446. 
Normal  School,  New  York,  lecture  at, 

332. 
Normal  schools  in  America,  320. 


540 


INDEX 


Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  85. 
Norway,  resources  and  energy,  473-474. 


Ocean,  empire  of,  an  idle  dream,  133. 
Oceans  as  a  protection  to  United  States, 

485- 
"Odyssey,"  acted  by  Wellesley  College 

students,  331. 
Ohio  Canal,  429. 
Ohio  River  at  Cincinnati,  266. 
Ontario,  population  of,  449. 
Orchards,  of  California,  51;   of  Canada, 

45i- 
Orchestral   Hall,    Chicago,    meeting   in, 

242-243. 

Orchestras,  American,  88,  246. 
Ore  boats,  automatic  unloading  of,  422- 

423,  442-443. 
Oregon,  woman  suffrage  in,  72;    wheat 

harvesting,  90;   apple  raising,  91-92. 
Organization,  regulated  by  the  need  of 

security,  97. 

Organizing  ability  of  Americans,  92. 
Outdoor  sports,  the  moral  equivalent  of 

war  from  educational  point  of  view, 

343- 


Pacific  Ocean  as  "an  American  lake," 
499. 

Pageant  for  children  at  Pittsburgh,  412- 
415- 

Palmer,  Mrs.  Potter,  242. 

Panama  Canal,  part  taken  by  French 
in  bringing  about,  240-241 ;  America 
finishing  what  France  began  at, 
501 ;  De  Lesseps'  work,  501-502 ; 
resurrection  of,  by  Bunau-Varilla, 
503;  completion  of,  by  American 
energy,  504-505 ;  mistake  of  fortify 
ing,  506-510;  question  of  tolls, 
510-513- 

Pan-American  Bureau,  Washington,  14- 
16;  desirability  of,  in  Europe,  16-17. 

Pan-American  Conciliation  Institute,  17. 

Pan-American  Union,  202. 

Panic,  railroad,  in  United  States,  189, 
191. 

Paris,  fashions  from,  in  America,  21, 
195;  English  travelers  in,  172; 
influence  of  Seine  River,  185 ;  points 


of  resemblance  between  plan  of,  and 
that  of  Washington,  287,  288; 
original  plan  of  city,  and  present-day 
mistakes,  200-291 ;  playground  as 
sociations  in,  415;  the  Trocadero 
as  a  blot,  445-446. 

Paris,  Treaty  of,  161. 

Parks,  at  St.  Louis,  180;  about  Mil 
waukee,  211. 

Park  system,  Kansas  City,  150-152. 

Pasadena,  villas  and  gardens  at,  54. 

Peace,  doctrines  of,  137;  American 
desire  for,  as  expressed  at  St.  Louis, 
169-170;  speeches  in  favor  of,  at 
Cincinnati  banquet,  272 ;  and  avia 
tion,  273-274;  teachings  of,  at  Lake 
Mohonk,  343 ;  attitude  of  Christian 
Scientists,  378;  relation  of  transport 
facilities  and,  425;  benefits  of,  as 
shown  in  United  States  and  Canada, 
461 ;  advantages  resulting  to  America 
from,  476-477. 

Peace  organization  and  political  economy, 
202. 

Peace  palace  built  at  Hague  by  Andrew 
Carnegie,  309. 

Pennsylvania  Station,  New  York  City, 
6,  190. 

Pensions  in  United  States,  479;  main 
reason  for  existence  of  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic,  515-516. 

Petroleum  in  California,  52-53. 

Philadelphia,   impressions  of,   8-9. 

Philanthropic  work  in  America,  397  ff. 

Philanthropists  in  America  and  Europe, 
267-269. 

Philippine  Islands,  a  pretext  for  develop 
ing  the  American  navy,  499;  prog 
ress  under  American  regime,  500. 

Phillips  Brooks  House,  Boston,  391-392. 

Photographers,  newspaper,  10. 

Pictures  by  French  artists  in  American 
galleries,  195. 

"Pied  Piper,"  pageant  of  the,  412-415. 

Pinchot,  Gifford,  apostle  of  afforestation, 
89. 

Pious  Funds,  submission  of  question  to 
Hague  tribunal,  308. 

Pittsburgh,  pageant  given  to  children 
at,  412-415;  production  and  cir 
culation  shown  at,  420;  present  and 
future  greatness  of,  421 ;  steel  manu 
factures,  422;  blast  furnaces,  423; 


INDEX 


541 


competitors  of,  in  the  manufacture  of 
steel,  426-427,  432-433,  443- 

Playground,  The,  magazine,  410. 

Playground  Associations,  409-416. 

Policing  the  ocean,  3-4. 

Political  economy,  teaching  of,  and 
relation  to  peace  organization,  202. 

Political  parties,  period  of  unrest  in, 
in  United  States,  344-345. 

Politics,  education  and,  in  United  States, 
198,  201 ;  treatment  in  Christian 
Science  Monitor,  382-383. 

Polygamy,  problem  of,  in  Utah,  99-102  ; 
reason  for  persistence  of,  375. 

Poor,  the  discontented,  in  America,  347. 

Population  of  Canada  and  of  United 
States,  448-450. 

Pork  barrel  legislation,  515-516. 

Porter,  Horace,  179,  309. 

Portland,  Oregon,  visit  to,  93-94. 

Prairie,  the,  viewed  as  an  ocean,  106; 
wheat-growing  on,  in  Canada,  452. 

Presbyterian  Church,  Seattle,  account 
of  work,  398-401. 

President  of  United  States,  responsibili 
ties  of,  281. 

Press,  the  American.    See  Newspapers. 

Printing,  American,  250. 

Production  in  America,  418-420;  sup 
plemented  by  circulation,  420. 

Progressive  Party,  the,  345~347- 

Prohibition,  women  and,  262-264. 

Public  opinion,  force  in  United  States, 
315  ff.;  the  guardian  of  American 
universities,  326-327;  influence  on 
religious  instruction  at  colleges,  336. 


Quebec,  population  of,  449. 
Quiet,  children's  need  of,  409. 


Railroads,  to  Seattle,  79,  85;  panic 
connected  with,  189,  191 ;  the 
creators  of  modern  America,  188- 
189;  lack  of  terminal  facilities, 
189-190,  455;  centering  in  Chicago, 
233-234;  supplies  for,  manufactured 
at  Pittsburgh,  425-426;  rate  of 
growth  compared  with  growth  of 
traffic,  426 ;  supplemented  by  canals, 


428;  transcontinental,  in  Canada, 
455-456;  in  Hudson  Bay  country, 
457-458;  Russia's  need  of,  470, 
471;  in  Norway,  473. 

Railroad  travel,  through  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  103-105 ;  advantages  of 
American,  134-136. 

Rainier,  Mount,  98. 

Recall,  the,  514-515. 

Rectory  gardens,  301. 

Reinsch,  Paul,  198,  202. 

Religion,  the  American,  256 ;  the  church 
a  school  in  America,  336-337;  atti 
tude  of  Americans  toward,  370  ff. ; 
dislike  for  arguments  about,  370; 
reasons  for  respect  for,  370-371  ; 
decrease  in  attendance  at  church, 
371 ;  early  laws  for  observance  of 
Sunday,  371-372;  process  of  evolu 
tion  in,  372-374;  Christian  Science, 
376-384;  spirit  of  toleration  in, 
384-386;  Ethical  Culture  Society, 
385;  genius  of  the  French  Revolu 
tion  displayed  in,  386-388;  Edward 
Everett  Hale  quoted,  387-388; 
viewed  by  Americans  as  a  source 
of  new  ideas  and  given  the  highest 
possible  position,  388;  indifference 
to  dogma,  388-389 ;  the  Unitarians, 
389-390;  of  the  future,  393  ff.  ; 
secularization  in  France,  394-396; 
America  the  logical  place  for  growth 
of  the  future,  396-397;  for  liberty, 
justice,  and  duty,  that  is  growing  up 
with  childhood,  416-417. 

Religions,  Congress  of,  at  Chicago,  374; 
union  of,  in  America,  384-386. 

Religious  toleration  in  American  col 
leges,  335-336. 

Reporters,  American,  10. 

Revolutionary  ideas  fostered  by  foreign 
students  at  American  universities, 
257- 

Rich,  class  of  discontented,  in  America, 
347- 

Rio  Grande,  source  of,  103-104. 

Rivers,  American,  94;  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  103-104 ;  individuality 
of,  184. 

Roads,  badness  of  Western,  138. 

Roaldes,  M.,  21. 

Robertson,  Mr.,  president  of  Manu 
facturers'  Club,  Cincinnati,  265. 


542 


INDEX 


Rochambeau  monument,  Washington, 
1 8,  305. 

Rock  Creek  Park,  Washington,  descrip 
tion  of,  296-297. 

Rocky  Mountains,  impressions  of,  103- 
105. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  attitude  toward 
feminism,  67;  and  the  Hague  tri 
bunal,  240,  307-308;  author's  visit 
to,  when  President,  306;  a  leader  in 
organization  of  arbitration,  344; 
Panama  Canal  work  during  adminis 
tration  of,  504;  advocacy  of  the 
recall  by,  514-515;  development  of 
imperialism  under,  520. 

Roosevelt  Dam,  98. 

Root,  Elihu,  17,  202;  type  of  American 
idealist  statesman,  309;  on  the 
Iroquois'  support  as  the  cause  of 
the  triumph  of  English  over  French 
in  America,  352 ;  on  preparations 
for  celebrating  the  centenary  of 
peace  between  United  States  and 
England,  463;  on  opening  Panama 
Canal  to  every  nation  on  the  same 
terms,  510-511;  on  arbitrating 
Panama  Canal  tolls  question,  513. 

Round  Table  Club,  St.  Louis,  180. 

Russia,  effect  on,  of  European  War, 
230;  doctrines  spread  in  America 
by  students  from,  257;  American 
ignorance  of,  469;  resources,  and 
position  as  a  future  competitor  of 
United  States,  469-471. 


Sabin,  Ellen,  principal  of  Downer  Col 
lege,  210. 

Sacramento  River,  94;  gold  mining  on 
banks  of,  95-97. 

Sage,  Mrs.  Russell,  work  for  protection 
of  birds,  299. 

St.  Antoine  Falls,  Minneapolis,  185- 
186,  187. 

St.  Louis,  memories  awakened  by,  155- 
156;  the  Mississippi  at,  157;  his 
torical  recollections,  157-163;  the 
creation  of,  160;  population  and 
prosperity,  164;  climate,  166;  nat 
ural  catastrophes,  166,  168;  sou 
venirs  of  France,  160-170;  parks, 
1 80;  social  life,  180. 


St.  Louis  Exhibition,  170. 

St.  Louis  University,  182-183. 

St.  Paul,  trip  to,  184-186;  women  of, 
195;  Mr.  Hill's  art  gallery,  195. 

Salt  Lake  City,  visit  to,  98-102 ;  pros 
perity  of,  loi ;  musical  activities, 
246. 

Salvation  Army,  methods  of  the,  385. 

San  Antonio,  Texas,  24;  a  caravanserai 
city,  25;  "the  cradle  of  liberty  in 
Texas,"  29;  barber-shop  fascinations 
at,  251. 

San  Francisco,  distances  in,  45;  labor 
ers'  wages  in,  45 ;  number  of  Japan 
ese  in,  49;  campaign  for  woman's 
suffrage,  59-72;  opposition  to  votes 
for  women,  73;  recovery  after  the 
earthquake,  167;  musical  interests, 
246,  247. 

Sangrain,  Antoine,  168. 

Saskatchewan,  population  of,  449. 

Scandinavian  nations,  early  germination 
of  ideas  in,  68 ;  qualities  as  competi 
tors  of  United  States,  473-475. 

Schmidlapp,  Mr.,  Cincinnati  manufac 
turer  and  public  benefactor,  265-269. 

Schools,  as  community  centers,  81-82; 
grades  of  American,  310-320. 

Scientific  management  in  America,  404. 

Scott,  James  Brown,  17,  179. 

Seattle,  favorable  attitude  in,  toward 
Japanese,  48-49;  number  of  Japan 
ese  in,  49;  description  of  visit  to, 
75  ff. ;  the  moving  houses,  76-78; 
the  "Seattle  spirit,"  78-80;  single- 
tax  doctrine,  80-8 1 ;  churches,  81 ; 
Exhibition  of  1909,  82-83 ;  as  the 
center  of  the  four  corners  of  the 
globe,  83;  ambition  and  ideals, 
85-86;  export  trade,  86;  symphony 
orchestra  at,  88;  account  of  work  of 
First  Presbyterian  Church,  398-401. 

Seine  River,  effect  of,  on  Parisians,  185. 

Shafroth,  John  F.,  governor  of  Colorado, 
116-117,  HQ- 

Shaw,  Robert  Gould,  negro  regiment  of, 
368. 

Siberia,  the  future  of,  470-471. 

Singing  by  young  people  in  America, 
203. 

Single-tax  doctrine,  Seattle,  80-8 1. 

Skyscrapers,  demoralizing  effect  of,  7- 
8 ;  in  Chicago,  238. 


INDEX 


543 


Slavery,  horrors  of,  in  United  States, 
350-361. 

Slocumb,  President,  105. 

Smiley  brothers,  work  of,  at  Lake 
Mohonk,  338-345- 

"Snobisme"  of  Americans,  remarks  on, 
244-245. 

Socialism,  among  Germans  in  Mil 
waukee,  216;  a  party  of  destruction 
and  of  promises,  347-348;  compara 
tive  weakness  in  United  States,  348- 
349 ;  obstacles  to  practical  application 
of,  340-351;  why  especially  weak  in 
United  States,  351,  397. 

Social  science,  relation  to  peace  organiza 
tion,  202. 

Sons  and  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution,  Denver,  in. 

Sorbonne,  professors,  169;  conditions 
at  the,  contrasted  with  those  at 
American  universities,  334. 

South  America,  future  competition  of, 
with  United  States,  468. 

Spain,  interests  of,  in  Mexico,  28; 
efforts  of,  toward  economic  revival, 
472. 

Spalding,  Bishop,  99. 

Spanish  War,  possible  disaster  to  United 
States  in,  114. 

Stanford  University,  coeducation  at,  55. 

Steel,  manufacture  of,  at  Pittsburgh, 
423-424 ;  competitors  of  Pittsburgh 
in  manufacture  of,  426-427,  432-433, 
443- 

Stewart,  Elihu,  superintendent  of  Cana 
dian  forests,  451-452. 

Stimson,  Henry  L.,  report  of,  as  secretary 
of  war,  cited,  481. 

Stock  raising,  in  California,  46;  in 
Washington  and  Oregon,  90-91. 

Stone,  Melville,  402. 

Submarines,  changes  in  naval  warfare 
due  to,  487. 

Sueter,  Murray,  quoted  on  mines  and 
torpedoes  in  naval  warfare,  487. 

Suffrage  for  women,  campaign  for,  in 
California,  59-72. 

Suffragettes  in  England,  66. 

Sunday  Evening  Club,  Chicago,  244. 

Sunlight,  blessings  of,  in  modern  city, 
292. 

Symphony  orchestras  in  America,  88, 
246. 


Taft,  William  H.,  firmness  in  Mexican 
situation,  32-33,  483;  visit  to,  when 
President,  306;  action  on  arbitration 
treaties,  309-310;  professor  at  Yale 
University,  335;  organization  of 
arbitration  supported  by,  344. 

Tariff,  protective,  evils  of  in  United 
States,  513-515- 

Technical  schools  in  United  States,  320, 
321-322. 

Temperance,  display  of,  at  Lincoln 
banquet,  143-144. 

Terminal  facilities,  lack  of,  in  American 
cities,  189-190;  lack  of,  for  Canadian 
railroads,  455. 

Texas,  attitude  toward  Mexico,  n  ff.; 
memories  of  northern  Africa  aroused 
by,  23;  material  progress  of,  24; 
description  of  country,  23-26;  in 
terest  of,  in  Mexican  situation,  29. 

Thompson,  Robert  M.,  269. 

Titanic  disaster,  4,  382. 

Tocqueville,  Alexis  de,  on  Sunday 
observance  in  America,  372;  on 
geographical  position  of  United 
States  as  a  natural  protection,  485. 

Toleration,  why  necessary  among  re 
ligions  in  America,  375. 

Tourist  traffic  in  California,  53. 

Tower,  Charlemagne,  biography  of 
Lafayette  by,  9. 

Transportation,  problem  in  United 
States,  188-194;  facilities  for,  in 
France  and  in  America,  424  ff . ; 
relation  to  peace,  425;  railroads 
and  canals,  427-433;  highways, 
434;  in  Canada,  455-457.  See  also 
Railroads. 

Travelers,  disadvantages  of  unenlight 
ened,  171-172;  English,  in  Paris, 
172;  American,  in  France,  175-176. 

Traveling  scholarships,  17—18. 

Treaties,  arbitration,  action  of  President 
Taft  regarding,  310. 

Trees,  effect  on,  of  skyscrapers,  7;  in 
Philadelphia,  8;  in  California,  51; 
about  Seattle,  76;  in  Rock  Creek 
Park,  Washington,  297-298. 

Trustees  of  American  universities,  office 
and  responsibilities,  327-328. 

Tuck,  Amos,  cited,  188. 


544 


INDEX 


Tuck,  Edward,  benefactions  of,  268. 
Tulane  University,  visit  to,  22-23. 
Tuskegee  Institute,  320,  364. 

U 

Union  Steel  Corporation,  works  of,  at 
Duluth,  433. 

Unitarians,  accomplishment  of  purpose 
of,  380-390. 

United  States,  attitude  toward  revolu 
tionary  Mexico,  ii  ff. ;  dangers  to, 
of  war  with  Mexico,  14;  problems 
presented  by  Mexican  situation, 
27-40;  long  distances  in,  42-44; 
total  number  of  Japanese  in,  49; 
possibilities  of  war  with  Japan,  54, 
74,  125-133;  students  of,  traveling 
abroad,  57-59;  states  which  have 
granted  votes  to  women,  72 ;  sup 
port  of  Hague  institution,  138-139, 
306-309;  and  the  Alsace-Lorraine 
question,  217-218;  supremacy  of 
children  in,  267;  benefactions  of 
successful  business  men  in,  267- 
269;  non-central  location  of  capital, 
280;  unsuitability  of  eagle  as  a 
symbol  for,  300;  progress  in  art  of 
gardening,  300-301 ;  formation  of 
natural  taste  in  art,  303 ;  question 
of  relation  of  federal  capital  to  the 
nation,  311 ;  mission  of,  to  regenerate 
the  Old  World  by  giving  it  the 
program  of  government,  311-312; 
political  parties,  344-347 ;  Socialism 
in,  347-351;  the  Indian  question, 
351-357;  the  negro  question,  358- 
370;  religion  in,  370-376;  sources 
of  future  competition,  467  ff. ;  ex 
penditure  for  pensions,  479;  figures 
as  to  army,  480-481 ;  the  militia, 
482 ;  the  navy,  484-495 ;  geo 
graphical  and  political  position  the 
best  defense,  485;  and  the  Philip 
pine  Islands,  499-500;  Panama 
Canal  questions,  501-513;  evils  of 
protective  tariff,  513-515;  pork 
barrel  legislation,  515-516;  new 
immigration,  517-518;  difference 
between  governmental  weaknesses 
and  the  aspirations  of  the  country, 
519;  idealism  of  the  people  con 
trasted  with  growing  imperialism 


of  the  government,  519-521 ;  ob 
ligations  and  duties  to  the  rest  of 
the  world,  521. 

Universities,  coeducation  in  Western, 
55 ;  models  taken  by  America  for 
her,  213;  different  classes  of,  327; 
responsibility  for,  vested  in  trustees, 
327-328;  honor  and  respect  accorded 
men  identified  with,  328-330;  pro 
tection  of  youth  at,  333-334;  con 
ditions  at,  compared  with  those  at 
the  Sorbonne,  334 ;  political  freedom 
of  heads  of,  337-338. 

University,  parliament  and,  contrasted, 
201 ;  absence  of  a  national,  at 
Washington,  213,  281 ;  question  as 
to  harm  or  ill  to  be  done  by  a  Federal, 
318. 

Urbana,  Illinois,  visit  to  state  university 
at,  254  ff. ;  the  Cosmopolitan  Club, 
and  thoughts  suggested  by  visit  to, 
256-262 ;  prohibition  in,  262-264. 

Usefulness,  an  ideal  in  America,  317. 

Utah,  woman  suffrage  in,  72 ;  irrigation 
in,  98-99;  polygamy  in,  100-102, 
375- 


Van  Dyke,  Henry,  169. 

Van  Home,  Sir  William,  on  the  negro 
problem,  365;  on  the  function  of 
railroads  in  Canada,  455-456. 

Vassar  College,  impressions  of,  331- 
332 ;  religious  toleration  at,  336. 

Violence,  a  temptation  to  be  shunned, 
524-525- 

"Votes  for  women,"  campaign  for,  in 
California,  59-72;  arguments  for, 
found  in  behavior  of  women  in  Euro 
pean  War,  66  n. 

W 

Wages,  high  rate  of,  in  California,  44- 
45;  in  Chicago  and  in  Kansas  City, 
148;  of  engine  drivers,  193. 

Walking,  old  and  new  views  of,  292-293. 

Walling,  Anna,  quoted,  257. 

Wang,  C.  C.,  president  of  International 
Club,  University  of  Wisconsin,  207  ; 
article  in  Cosmopolitan  Student  by, 
258. 

War  of  1914-15.    See  European  War. 


INDEX 


545 


Washington,  Booker  T.,  work  at  Tuske- 
gee  Institute,  364-365;  disciples  of, 
as  teachers  among  negroes,  367. 

Washington,  George,  tomb  of,  at  Mount 
Vernon,  305 ;  Farewell  Address 
quoted  concerning  natural  defenses 
of  United  States,  485. 

Washington,  D.  C.,  Pan-American  Bu 
reau  at,  14-17;  distances  in,  43; 
danger  to,  from  non-central  location 
in  nation,  280;  the  political  but  not 
the  intellectual  center  of  the  United 
States,  280-281 ;  government  of, 
281 ;  description  of  residential  quar 
ter,  282-283;  children,  babies,  and 
women,  283-285;  plan  of,  and 
L'Enfant's  work,  285-291 ;  a  trium 
phant  example  of  city-planning, 
291  ff . ;  Rock  Creek  Park,  296-297  ; 
trees  and  birds  in  park,  297-300; 
gardens  and  gardening,  300-303, 
304;  Mount  Vernon  and  the  White 
House,  304-305;  viewed  as  a  city 
of  gratitude,  305-306;  to  be  a  small 
court  or  a  great  capital?  311-312. 

Washington,  state  of,  number  of  Jap 
anese  in,  49;  woman  suffrage  in, 
72;  visit  to,  75  ff.;  agricultural 
methods  in,  90;  livestock  raising, 
90-91 ;  culture  and  gathering  of 
apples,  91-92. 

Wastefulness  of  Americans,   89-90. 

Water,  influence  on  human  education, 
197. 

Water  traffic  in  United  States,  191-194, 
427-433. 

Weather  Bureau,  Washington,  290. 

Weill,  Raphael,  44. 

Wellesley  College,  331. 

Wendell,  Barrett,  169. 

West  Point  Academy,  320. 

Wheat-harvesting  methods  in  the  West, 
90. 

Wheat  raising  in  Canada,  452-454. 

Wheeler,  Benjamin  Ide,  55,  113-114; 
political  freedom  of  educators  illus 
trated  by,  337. 

White,  Andrew  D.,  178,  307;  university 
distinction  of,  329. 

White  House,  Washington,  significance 
to  Americans,  305;  author's  visits 


to,  306 ;  a  battle  ground  of  opposing 
forces,  310-311. 

Widtsoe,  John  A.,  books  on  dry  farming 
by,  99. 

Wilson,  George  Graf  ton,  169. 

Wilson,  President,  policy  toward  Mexico, 
36,  38-39;  university  connections, 
330. 

Wine,  California,  51-52. 

Wisconsin,  constitution  and  legislative 
department,  198-201. 

Wisconsin,  University  of,  196,  197-198, 
201,  202-204,  207-208. 

Woman,  the  American,  54,  55  ff.,  ui- 
112;  influence  regarding  the  drink 
question,  262-264;  specimens  of, 
seen  in  Washington,  284-285. 

Woman  suffrage,  59  ff. ;  states  where 
granted,  72. 

Women,  at  Western  universities,  55-57; 
young  American,  traveling  abroad, 
59 ;  status  of  French,  62-66 ;  mem 
bers  of  Colorado  legislature,  122- 
123;  disadvantages  of,  at  banquets, 
152-153;  of  St.  Paul  and  Minne 
apolis,  195;  associations  of,  for  city 
beautifying,  295-296;  feelings  of 
American,  concerning  secularization 
in  France,  394-395. 

"Women  and  the  Cause  of  Peace," 
lecture  on,  60. 

"Women's  Journal  and  Suffrage  News," 
73  n. 

Wood,  Leonard,  work  for  negroes  in 
Cuba,  366,  467;  chief  of  general 
staff,  484;  peaceful  conquest  of 
Cuba  by,  498. 

Wright  brothers,  270;  early  flights  in 
France,  273-274. 

Wyoming,  woman  suffrage  in,  72. 


Yale  University,  initiative  and  kindliness 

of  students  at,  334~335- 
Yellow  fever  germ,  war  waged  on,  by 

Americans,  505. 
Yellow  peril,   the,   47-50.   54,   125-133. 

508  n. 

Yellowstone  Park,  211. 
Young  Americans  abroad,  57-59- 


2N 


T 


HE   following  pages    contain   advertisements  of  a 
few  of  the   Macmillan  books  on  kindred  subjects. 


AN  IMPORTANT  NEW  BOOK 

The   New   American    Government 
and  Its  Work 

BY  JAMES  T.   YOUNG 

Professor  of  Public  Administration  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
Cloth,  8vot  $2.2$ 

This  book,  intended  for  that  growing  circle  of  readers 
who  are  interested  not  only  in  political  form  and  struc 
ture,  but  also  more  especially  in  What  the  Government  Is 
Doing  and  Why,  is  characterized  by  the  following  features : 

1.  It  places  greater  emphasis  than  usual  on  the  work  of 
the  government. 

2.  It  pays  more  attention  to  present  problems,  espe 
cially  to  the  Public  Regulation  of  Business. 

3.  It  applies  to  every  aspect  of  government  the  test  of 
Results  —  whether  the  subject  be  the  powers  of  the  Presi 
dent,  the  election  laws,  or  the  Sherman  act  —  for  the  value 
of  a  court,  a  statute,  or  a  political  institution  should  be 
known  by  its  output. 

4.  It  depicts  the  Government  As  It  Is,  and  as  it  has 
developed.     Our  system  is  not  a  finished  crystal,  nor  an 
ancient  historical  manuscript,  but  a  growth.     And  it  is 
still  growing. 

5.  It  includes  the  interpretation  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  chief  regulative  laws,  in  the  most  recent  Decisions  of 
the  Supreme  Court.     It  is  this  that  gives  clear,  definite 
meaning  to  the  discussion  of  government  forms  and  ac 
tivities. 

6.  It  presents  an  Ideal.     It  does  not  hesitate  to  point 
out  the  moral  defects,  and  the  social  cost  of  political  weak 
ness  and  inefficiency,  but  its  Tone  is  Optimistic. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Government. 

By  LUCIUS  HUDSON  HOLT,  Ph.D. 

Lieutenant-Colonel,  United  States  Army, 
Professor  of  English  and  History,  United  States  Military  Academy  at 

West  Point 
Cloth,  Crown  8vo.,  388  pp.;  $2.00;  postage  extra 

This  book  has  been  written  to  place  before  students  a  concise 
statement  of  the  nature,  organization,  and  operation  of  govern 
ment  as  government  exists  in  the  foremost  states  of  the  modern 
world.  On  the  one  hand,  it  covers  a  narrower  field  than  the  current 
text-books  on  Political  Science;  on  the  other,  it  covers  a  wider  field 
than  the  current  text-books  on  the  government  of  the  United  States. 
The  author  sets  forth  general  principles  of  government  and  shows 
how  these  general  principles  are  modified  in  practice  by  particular 
states. 

The  general  divisions  of  the  author's  plan  which  are  those  com 
monly  adopted  by  political  science  writers  are: 

I.  Government;  II.  Sovereignty  and  the  Constitution;  III.  The  Or 
ganization  of  Government;  IV.  The  Legislative;  V.  The  Executive; 
VI.  The  Judiciary;  VII.  The  Electorate;  VIII.  Political  Parties;  IX.  Lo 
cal  Government;  X.  Government  of  Dependencies;  XI.  The  Functions 
of  Government;  XII.  Unnecessary  or  Optional  Functions  of  Govern 
ment;  Appendix;  Index. 

An  innovation  that  deserves  especial  mention  is  the  insertion 
after  a  number  of  the  chapters  of  ''Statistics  and  Illustrative  Cita 
tions."  It  is  intended  that  these  shall  be  used  in  some  such  way 
as  "Source"  books  and  volumes  of  "Readings"  are  used  in  many 
history  courses  to-day. 

Since  this  book  was  conceived  and  written,  events  have  come  to 
pass  which  will  ultimately  be  reflected  in  momentous  political 
changes  among  the  chief  states  of  the  modern  world.  Such  changes, 
however,  will  certainly  develop  along  the  lines  of  liberal  experiment 
in  government  as  made  in  democratic  countries.  A  study  of  mod 
ern  government  in  general  will,  therefore,  have  a  value  to  the  stu 
dent  in  his  consideration  of  coming  possibilities  in  European  polit 
ical  organization. 


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Progressive  Democracy 

BY   HERBERT  CROLY 

Author  of  "  The  Promise  of  American  Life  " 


Cloth,  8vo,  $2.00 

The  object  of  the  author  in  this  book  is  threefold.  He 
has  in  the  first  place  analyzed  the  modern  progressive  dem 
ocratic  movement  in  this  country  in  order  to  separate  its 
essential  from  its  non-essential  ingredients  to  discover 
whether  there  is  any  real  issue  between  American  progres- 
sivism  and  American  conservatism.  In  the  second  place 
he  has  tried  to  reconstruct  the  historical  background  of 
progressivism  to  see  what  roots  or  lack  of  roots  it  has  in 
the  American  political  and  economic  tradition.  And  fi 
nally  he  has  attempted  to  trace  what  we  may  reasonably 
expect  from  the  progressive  movement,  to  show  what  tools 
it  must  use  in  order  to  carry  out  its  program  and  what 
claims  it  has  on  the  support  of  patriotic  Americans.  The 
work  seeks,  therefore,  to  express  for  the  first  time  a  con 
sistently  educational  theory  of  democracy. 

"  Mr.  Croly  has  been  a  pioneer  in  the  reconstruction  of 
American  political  opinion.  His  books  show  originality  as 
well  as  keen  analysis."  —Political  Science  Quarterly. 

"A  work  of  first-rate  importance  .  .  .  admirably  writ 
ten."  -  The  Dial. 

11  Mr.  Croly  shows  himself  to  be  a  master  of  interpreta 
tion  of  the  trend  of  American  democracy."  —  Boston  Herald. 

"  His  spirit  is  admirably  candid  .  .  .  and  his  ultimate 
purpose  is  in  the  broadest  sense  constructive  and  humane." 
—  New  York  Times. 

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Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


The  Panama  Canal  and   International 
Trade  Competition 

BY  LINCOLN   HUTCHINSON 

University  of  California 
Cloth,  8vo,  $1.75 

This  important  work  on  the  Canal  is  the  first  to  treat 
specially  of  its  commercial  and  economic  aspects  and  the 
first  to  present,  in  broad  outlines,  the  commercial  and  eco 
nomic  geography  of  the  two  great  trade  areas  affected  by 
the  opening  of  this  neW  waterway.  The  author  analyzes 
the  interchange  of  goods  between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
Ocean  basins,  and  by  an  examination  of  trade  statistics  of 
the  past  ten  or  fifteen  years,  illustrates  the  tendencies  of 
development,  both  as  to  specific  goods  and  specific  coun 
tries. 

It  is  a  book  for  every  business  man  who  has  or  may 
have  dealings  with  the  countries  in  question,  or  who  is  in 
terested  in  forming  some  opinion  concerning  the  possible 
or  probable  commercial  influence  of  the  new  canal.  To 
the  general  reader  or  the  student  of  commercial  or  eco 
nomic  geography  the  work  offers  a  very  valuable  and 
comprehensive  discussion  of  the  problem. 

An  important  map  showing  trade  routes  and  distances 
by  existing  lines  and  by  the  Panama  Canal  is  appended. 


"  The  book  contains  a  world  of  valuable  information." 
—  San  Francisco  Bulletin. 


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Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


A    GREAT    WORK    INCREASED    IN    VALUE 

The    American    Commonwealth 

BY    JAMES    BRYCE 

New  edition,  thoroughly  revised,  with  four  new  chapters 

Two  8vo  volumes,  $4.00 

"  More  emphatically  than  ever  is  it  the  most  noteworthy 
treatise  on  our  political  and  social  system."  —  The  Dial. 

"The  most  sane  and  illuminating  book  that  has  been 
written  on  this  country."  —  Chicago  Tribune. 

"  What  makes  it  extremely  interesting  is  that  it  gives  the 
matured  views  of  Mr.  Bryce  after  a  closer  study  of  Ameri 
can  institutions  for  nearly  the  life  of  a  generation."  —  San 
Francisco  Chronicle. 

;'  The  work  is  practically  new  and  more  indispensable 
than  Qvzr"  --Boston  Herald. 


"  In  its  revised  form,  Mr.  Bryce's  noble  and  discerning 
book  deserves  to  hold  its  preeminent  place  for  at  least 
twenty  years  more."  —  Record-Herald,  Chicago,  111. 

"  Mr.  Bryce  could  scarcely  have  conferred  on  the  Amer 
ican  people  a  greater  benefit  than  he  has  done  in  prepar 
ing  the  revised  edition  of  his  monumental  and  classic  work, 
'The  American  Commonwealth.'  "  —  Boston  Globe. 

"  If  the  writer  of  this  review  was  to  be  compelled  to  re 
duce  his  library  of  Americana  to  five  books,  James 
Bryce's  'American  Commonwealth  '  would  be  one  of  them." 
—  Evening  Telegram,  Portland,  Ore. 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


The  Government  of  American  Cities 

BY  PROFESSOR  WILLIAM  B.  MUNRO 

Of  Harvard  University 

Cloth,  ismo,  $2.00 

Here  Professor  Munro  presents  with  fairness  and  impartiality  all  the 
aspects  of  such  subjects  as  Commission  Government,  The  Initiative,  The 
Referendum,  The  Recall.  Other  phases  of  municipal  government  in  this 
country  are  also  considered,  so  that  the  work  may  be  described  as  a 
comprehensive  survey  of  present  conditions  in  our  cities.  The  book  is  found 
even  more  interesting  and  stimulating  than  the  author's  "  The  Government  of 
European  Cities." 

BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

The  Government  of  European  Cities 

Cloth,  8vo,  $2.00 

"On  the  whole  Professor  Munro's  book  may  be  fairly  characterized  as  the 
most  useful  of  its  kind  thus  far  published,  because  it  furnishes  the  material 
for  making  comparisons  which  must  inevitably  disclose  the  true  course  of 
numerous  American  municipal  shortcomings.11  —  San  Francisco  Chronicle. 

"This  book  is  distinctly  an  addition  to  our  text-books  on  municipal 
administration,  despite  the  fact  that  we  have  several  very  good  ones  already. 
It  is  a  book  which  will  prove  of  great  benefit  to  the  serious-minded  reader 
interested  in  municipal  governments ;  but  it  will  probably  be  used  mostly  as 
a  reference  or  text-book  in  colleges  and  universities."  —  The  American 
Journal  of  Sociology. 

"  Cette  <ftude  est  tres  fructueuse  pour  tous  ceux  qu'inteVessent  les  questions 
de  droit  public  compare'. "  —  Societe  Beige  tf  Etudes  Coloniales. 

"  Dr.  Munro's  book  is  an  indispensable  one  to  the  student  of  municipal 
government  who  would  acquaint  himself  with  the  experience  of  the  world. 
He  modestly  disclaims  any  assumption  of  exhaustiveness,  but  it  certainly 
gives  us  an  admirably  clear  picture  alike  valuable  from  its  analytical,  com 
parative,  and  historical  aspects."  —  The  Argonaut,  San  Francisco. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

RENEWALS  ONLY— TEL.  NO.  642-3405 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


LOAN  DEPT. 


General  Library 


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